UMEM Educational Pearls

Category: Misc

Title: CT Radiation doses

Keywords: CT, head, radiation (PubMed Search)

Posted: 4/13/2019 by Brian Corwell, MD
Click here to contact Brian Corwell, MD

 
  • A recent retrospective study examined CT radiation doses in different types of facilities

 

  • Mean patient age: 12 years
  • Authors reviewed radiation doses for nearly 240,000 CT scans in over 500 facilities
  •  
  • The facilities were categorized into 4 groups: 

 

  • 1) academic pediatric,
  • 2) non-academic pediatric,
  • 3) academic adult, 
  • 4) non-academic adult

 

Most (65%) scans were performed at nonacademic adult centers

 

  • Radiation doses were significantly higher at adult facilities vs. pediatric facilities
  • Also, radiation doses were higher at non-academic vs. academic facilities
  • For example, the largest children received twice the radiation dose for abdomen-pelvis CT scans performed at nonacademic adult facilities compared with academic pediatric facilities
    • 11.9 mGy vs. 5.8 mGy
  • Academic pediatric facilities use lower radiation doses than do nonacademic pediatric or adult facilities for all head CT examinations and for the majority of chest and abdomen-pelvis

 

References

Strauss et al., 2019. Radiation Dose for Pediatric CTT: Comparison of Pediatric versus Adult Imaging Facilities