Congress:
EuroSafe Imaging 2020
Keywords:
Performed at one institution, Observational, Retrospective, Developmental disease, Congenital, Aneurysms, Diagnostic procedure, CT, Thorax, Head and neck, Cardiac, Action 7 - Radiation protection of children
Authors:
D. P. Ivanova, M. Nedevska, D. Kostova-Lefterova, V. V. Groudeva
DOI:
10.26044/esi2020/ESI-05000
Background/introduction
The use of computer-tomography (CT) in diagnostic imaging has increased over the last decades [1]. Much effort has been made in order to improve the radiation safety for the patients, especially for the paediatric ones, during the CT examinations [2].
The aim of this study is to evaluate the typical patient doses and the image quality for children for different types of CT examinations and to explore whether an optimization of the radiation protection is possible.
The investigation is made on a 320-slice CT system (Fig. 1). The CT examinations involved in the current study are thorax, head, cardiac and abdomen. The paediatric patients are divided into 5 different age groups. The groups are chosen as it follows: 0-1 month; 1-12 months; 1-5 years; 5-10 years and 10-15 years. In order to evaluate the patient dose - volume computed tomography dose index (CTDIvol) and dose length product (DLP) are used. For additional analyses, the values of the tube voltage, tube current, slice thickness, beam width, pitch, field of fiew (FOV), CT gantry rotation time and some patient data - sex, age and weight are also recorded. The image quality is evaluated by two experienced radiologists.