A dose monitoring software with integrated reference to European Pediatric DRLs: application in a Pediatric Radiology Department

Congress:

EuroSafe Imaging 2019

Poster Number:

ESI-0074

Type:

EuroSafe Imaging

Keywords:

Action 7 - Radiation protection of children, Action 2 - Clinical diagnostic reference levels (DRLs), Action 4 - Dose management systems, Paediatric, Radioprotection / Radiation dose, CT, Fluoroscopy, RIS, Radiation safety, Dosimetric comparison

Authors:

M. A. Ciccone, C. Granata, F. Levrero, G. M. Magnano

DOI:

10.26044/esi2019/ESI-0074

DOI-Link:

https://dx.doi.org/10.26044/esi2019/ESI-0074

Fig. 1: The red dot line represent the European pediatric DRL value [1] for the CT...

Fig. 2: The queries implemented in the dose tracking software

Table 1: The red dot line represent the European pediatric DRL value [1] for the CT Head...

Table 2: The red dot line represent the European pediatric DRL value [1] for the CT Head...

Background/introduction

Today a large number of patient dose management software (PDMS) tools are widely commercially available. The goal of these dose tracking software tools is to collect, record, display and analyze exposure data on the radiation administered to patients during the radiologic examinations. The adoption of a PDMS results in significant workflow and quality benefits for radiology departments due to the ability to monitor the exposure data administered during similar radiologic procedures and to reveal the outlier dose metrics for common examination types [4]. The report...

Description of activity and work performed

We have analyzed the data of two years of activity starting from 1th January 2017 to 31th December 2018: the total amount is 8220 CT examinations (mean age 8y 3m, median age 9y) and 2285 MCU (mean age 4y 10m, median age 3y) performed on children (from 0 to 18 years of age). The radiation dose administered to patients during MCU examinations (considered metric air kerma-area product [PKA] mGy cm2) is significantly lower (from 1/3 to 1/8) than the radiation dose indicated by the reference...

Conclusion and recommendations

Radiation dose tracking software tools for automated collection of dose data are widely available but the possibility to perform queries not only for age data set but also for weight group set is only feasible if the software is strictly linked with the information contained in the radiology information system. The feature of showing clearly the pediatric DRLs in the graphic screenshots is very useful to appreciate at a glance the trend of the work performed according to current practice protocols. Useful developments of the...

Personal/organisational information

Ciccone MA RT Manager Radiology Department "Giannina Gaslini" Pediatric Institute Via Gaslini, 5 16139 Genoa Italy Ph: +393357413700 Mail: [email protected]

References

Report 185 “European Guidelines on Diagnostic Reference Levels for Paediatric Imaging” European Commission, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union; 2018 Chen YA,MacGregor K,Li I,Concepcion L,Deva DP,Dowdell T,Gray BG. Tracking and Resolving CT Dose Metric Outliers Using Root-Cause Analysis. J Am Coll Radiol 13(6):680-7; 2016 Brink, JA. Clinical decision-making tools for exam selection, reporting and dose tracking. Pediatr Radiol 44 (Suppl 3): 418; 2014 Brink, JA. Clinical decision-making tools for exam selection, reporting and dose tracking. Pediatr Radiol 44 (Suppl 3): 418; 2014 Siewko D....