Congress:
EuroSafe Imaging 2020
Keywords:
Action 4 - Dose management systems, Radioprotection / Radiation dose, Digital radiography, Comparative studies, Quality assurance, Prospective, Diagnostic or prognostic study, Performed at one institution
Authors:
M. Wurm, S. Tschauner, E. Sorantin
DOI:
10.26044/esi2020/ESI-10476
Background/introduction
In pediatric radiology patient dose has a key role in the diagnostic process. It is well-known that children in comparison to adults are significantly more sensitive to ionizing radiation. Current literature suggests pediatric patients to be way more susceptible to radiation induced cancer, by three-fold to ten-fold, depending on population age1.
Therefore applied doses in pediatric radiology always have to be as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA principle)2 to reduce cancer risk in further life3. Currently, conventional radiography and CT examination settings are usually chosen by an automatic system4. This approach may not be accurate, especially in younger children, not taking into account the diversity in body constitution. In consequence, age or weight-dependent manual exposure settings may be used instead.
To the best of our knowledge, no morphometric or body constitution-related exposure setting adaptations are in use to date. They could prove of high value in the reduction of patient dose and reduction of contrast agent used. This should be achieved without loss of image quality.
The aim of this study is to find surrogate parameters for patient weight to implement in diagnostic routine of CR / CT that could lead to a reduction in applied patient dose.