Final answer:
To reduce partial volume artifact without increasing the appearance of noise, the correct option is to decrease slice thickness while increasing mAs. This approach maintains signal-to-noise ratio by compensating for the noise potentially caused by thinner slices with more signal.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question is related to reducing the partial volume artifact in imaging without increasing the appearance of noise. The partial volume artifact is a common problem in computed tomography (CT) imaging, where different tissues within a single voxel cause the resulting pixel to represent an average of those tissues rather than a distinct tissue type. This can lead to misleading information about tissue boundaries and structures.
To reduce this artifact without increasing the appearance of noise, one may choose to decrease slice thickness while increasing mAs. This option maintains the signal-to-noise ratio by providing more signal (with higher mAs) to compensate for the increased noise that could result from thinner slices. Increasing slice thickness (whether mAs is increased or not) would reduce the partial volume artifact but not necessarily without increasing noise.