Impact of a Dose Team for the optimisation of CT protocols

Congress:

ECR 2019

Poster Number:

C-0687

Type:

Scientific Exhibit

Keywords:

Oncology, Radioprotection / Radiation dose, Radiographers, CT, Dosimetry, Radiation safety, Cancer, Education and training

Authors:

S. Badia¹, M. Rengo¹, D. Bellini¹, S. Picchia¹, I. Carbone¹, M. Osimani¹, M. M. Maceroni², F. Iaiza³, A. Laghi⁴; ¹Latina/IT, ²latina, lt/IT, ³Latina /IT, ⁴Rome/IT

DOI:

10.26044/ecr2019/C-0687

DOI-Link:

https://dx.doi.org/10.26044/ecr2019/C-0687

Fig. 2: Wrong patient position

Fig. 3: Correct patient position

Fig. 4: Comparison of image quality between old and new protocols

Fig. 1: Diagram of radiation dose levels of two protocols

Fig. 5: Alert rate in old and new protocols

Fig. 6: The median dose between new and old protocols

Fig. 7: Valid dose modulation

Aims and objectives

Evaluate the impact of a Dose Team for the optimisation of CT exams in oncologic patients.

Methods and materials

A Dose team was created (two Radiologists, one Radiographer, one Radiology resident, a Risk manager, the Medical Director and a Medical Physicist) whose objective was to evaluate the quality of the images of 1000 oncological CT exams and the amount of dose delivered through dedicated software (DoseWatch®, GE Healthcare) (Fig. 1).Both the number of exams with higher radiations’ dose than average and the parameters that led to excessive exposure were evaluated. The analysis was used for staff training and to modify Total Body and Thorax...

Results

The image quality of new protocols was significantly higher than previous (p <0.05)( Fig. 4). The number of exams with higher dose than the average were significantly reduced compared to previous protocols (1.2% Vs 7.4% and 7.5% Vs 9.2%; p <0.05)(Fig. 5). The median dose of the new Total Body protocol was higher than the previous although not significantly (DLP mGy-cm; 2128.7 Vs 1552.45, p> 0.05) while the median dose of the new Thorax protocol was significantly lower than the previous (DLP mGy-cm; 166.83 Vs...

Conclusion

The creation of the Dose Team allowed to monitor the radiation dose of the CT exams providing useful information for staff training and for exams optimisation. It was also possible to reduce the percentage of exams with a higher than average dose improving the images’ quality.

Personal information

Stefano Badia, Resident in Diagnostic Radiology [email protected] "Sapienza" - University of Rome Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry Department of Radiological Sciences, Oncology and Pathology Diagnostic Imaging Unit - I.C.O.T. Hospital, Latina - ITALY Chief: Prof. Iacopo Carbone Marco Rengo,Davide Bellini,Simona Picchia,Iacopo Carbone,Marcello Osimani,Marco M. Maceroni,Fabiana Iaiza. "Sapienza" - University of Rome Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry Department of Radiological Sciences, Oncology and Pathology Diagnostic Imaging Unit - I.C.O.T. Hospital, Latina - ITALY Chief: Prof. Iacopo Carbone Andrea Laghi, Department of Surgical and Medical Sciences and...

References

United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation. Sources and effects of ionizing radiation: UNSCEAR 2008 report to the General Assembly with scientific annexes, 2010. New York. Beyan C, Kaptan K, Ifran A, Öcal R, Ulutin C, Öztürk B. The effect of radiologic imaging studies on the risk of secondary malignancy development in patients with Hodgkin lymphoma. Clin Lymphoma Myeloma. 2007;7(7):467-9. Lynch RC, Zelenetz AD, Armitage JO, Carson KR. Surveillance imaging for lymphoma: pros and cons. Am Soc Clin Oncol Educ Book. 2014:e388-95....