Patient doses in paediatric CT: feasibility of setting diagnostic reference levels

Despite the fact that doses to paediatric patients from computed tomography (CT) examinations are of special concern, only few data or studies for setting of paediatric diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) have been published. In this study, doses to children were estimated from chest and head CT, in...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Radiation protection dosimetry 2011-09, Vol.147 (1-2), p.142-146
Main Authors: Järvinen, H., Merimaa, K., Seuri, R., Tyrväinen, E., Perhomaa, M., Savikurki-Heikkilä, P., Svedström, E., Ziliukas, J., Lintrop, M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
age groups
Child
Child, Preschool
Children
computed tomography
Dosimetry
Feasibility Studies
Head - diagnostic imaging
Humans
Infant
Infant, Newborn
Radiation Dosage
Radiography, Thoracic - standards
Reference Standards
Tomography, X-Ray Computed - standards
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Despite the fact that doses to paediatric patients from computed tomography (CT) examinations are of special concern, only few data or studies for setting of paediatric diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) have been published. In this study, doses to children were estimated from chest and head CT, in order to study the feasibility of DRLs for these examinations. It is shown that for the DRLs, patient dose data from different CT scanners should be collected in age or weight groups, possibly for different indications. For practical reasons, the DRLs for paediatric chest CT should be given as a continuous DRL curve as a function of patient weight. For paediatric head CT, DRLs for a few age groups could be given. The users of the DRLs should be aware of the calibration phantom applied in the console calibration for different paediatric scanning protocols. The feasibility of DRLs should be re-evaluated every 2-3 y.
ISSN:0144-8420
1742-3406
DOI:10.1093/rpd/ncr293