Background/introduction
The associated risk of ionizing radiation must be considered carefully when CT is performed on children due to their higher sensitivity to radiation damage and long life expectancy [1]. Therefore, it is mandatory to respect the radiation protection principles when performing radiological examinations on children [2,3]. Once the examination is properly justified, it is hence fundamental to optimise the scan protocol in order to reduce the radiation exposure to the lowest level in accordance with the needed image quality. For head trauma indications, CT represents...
Description of activity and work performed
Examinations were performed, in our paediatric department, on a Revolution HD CT scanner (General Electric Healthcare, installed in 2017) with an adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASIR-V). The local median value of CTDIvol, calculated on 0-1 y patients who underwent head CT scanner for trauma indication using the initial routine scan protocol, exceeded the updated national DRL. Thus, a multidisciplinary working group, composed of two paediatric neuro-radiologists, medical physicist, referent technologist and vendor application specialist, was involved to perform an iterative optimisation process. In order to...
Conclusion and recommendations
This study showed that iterative protocol optimisation process is necessary in order to respect the ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achievable) principle through the lowest exposure level in accordance with the needed image quality. The multidisciplinary collaboration among radiologists, medical physicists, radiographers and vendor specialists can improve patient safety and maintain radiology quality assurance. Patient dose monitoring and the use of DRLs are essential tools for the optimisation of protection in medical imaging.
Personal/organisational information
B. Habib Geryes; Paris/FR - nothing to disclose R. Levy; Paris/FR - nothing to disclose N. Boddaert; Paris/FR - nothing to disclose C.-J. Roux; Paris/FR - nothing to disclose
References
1- UNSCEAR (2013) Effects of radiation exposure of children. In:United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation 2013 Report, Volume II, Scientific Annex B
2- International Commission on Radiological Protection (2007) The 2007 Recommandations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection. ICRP 37(2-4)
3- European Commission (2013) Laying down basic safety standards for protection against the dangers arising from exposure to ionising radiation. Council directive 2013/59 (Euratom). Official Journal of the European Union 17.1.L13
4- International Commission on Radiological Protection (2017) Diagnostic reference...