Evaluation of paediatric computed tomography imaging for brain, and abdomen procedures

Computed tomography (CT) are often used for adult and pediatric patients. This is basically due to its powerful diagnostic capabilities in providing the tiniest details of pathologies in the body. Nevertheless, this detailed and accurate imaging occurs at the expense of the high doses received by the patients, although in general, the benefits outweighs the risks precisely of malignancy. Pediatrics are radiosensitive more than adults due to their longer life expectancy and their rapidly dividing cells.This study aims at measuring and evaluating pediatric patient doses in four hospitals equipped with 16, 20 and 128 CT detectors. Forty-eight pediatric patients who underwent brain (72.7%) and abdomen (36.3%) Computed Tomography are included in this study. Data includes CTDIvol (mGy) and DLP (mGy.cm). CTDOSE computer software which is based on Monte Carlo simulations was used to calculate the effective and organ equivalent doses (mSv).The CTDIvol (mGy) per procedure range was 11.0-95.0 mGy for brain CT and 3.0-30.0 mGy for abdomen CT. DLP on the other hand ranged between 129.0 and 2510.0 mGy cm for brain CT and 84.0-1604.0 for abdomen CT. The high doses were attributed to the fact that the protocols used for pediatric patients were the adult protocols, not bearing in mind the high radio-sensitivity of the pediatrics. Establishing a protocol for pediatric CT is hence of great importance to prevent them from receiving unnecessary high doses which may eventually cause cancer.