Aims and objectives
To demonstrate the importance of reducing the radiation dose during the MDCT exams.
Compare the radiation doses in patients during CT scans in three institutions comparing multidetector equipments with different models and manufacturers.
The comparison is made from the effective dose (E) means found from DLP (dose-length product) provided by the equipment itself through the examination protocol,
using the constant k normalized by the American Association of Physicists Report in Medicine (AAPM) N 96.
We aim also to show if there are differencesin the effective...
Methods and materials
Currently the dose for patients and the collective dose resulting from CT scans is a public health problem in many countries of the world.
Studies suggest that an increase in the number of CT exams and the amount of absorbed radiation dose to which patients are exposed are associated with an increased risk of developing cancer.
The use in medical practice of MDCT equipments,
brought an increase of approximately 40% of the radiation dose absorbed.
Compare the radiation doses in patients during MDCT exams in...
Results
We analyzed a total of 1471 MDCT exams in the three institutions:
Head MDCT: n= 516: Equipment A (n=187); Equipment B (n=203); Equipment C (n=126).
Chest MDCT: n= 401: : Equipment A (n=173); Equipment B (n=69); Equipment C (n=159).
Abdomen/pelvis MDCT: n=554: Equipment A (n=174); Equipment B (n=249); Equipment C (n=131) ( Figs 3-6).
Are detailed in Table 3 the DLP (dose-length product) in each type of MDCT from all the equipments evaluated (Fig 7).
In all equipments,
the mean effective dose (E) were in...
Conclusion
This study identified significant variations between the average effective doses provided to patients on MDCT scans between different devices for the same exam and larger variations on the same equipment for each type of examination.
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