Final answer:
Increasing pitch during a CT scan results in lowering the patient dose, as it reduces the time any section of the body is exposed to the X-ray beam.
Step-by-step explanation:
The student has asked which action results in lowering the patient dose during a radiological procedure. Increasing the pitch in computed tomography (CT) scanning is known to result in a lower patient dose. The pitch in CT refers to the ratio of the table increment per rotation to the total width of the X-ray beam. A higher pitch means that the table moves more quickly through the scanner, thus the X-ray beam intersects with any given section of the body for less time, which reduces the overall radiation exposure. In contrast, reducing mAs (milliampere-seconds), which is the product of tube current and time, also lowers patient dose but affects image quality as it reduces the number of X-ray photons produced. It's important to manage these parameters correctly to balance image quality with patient safety.