Pediatric Fracture Diagnosis - Ultra-Low-Dose CT with an Effective Dose Equal to that of Radiographs

Purpose: Computed tomography (CT) plays an important role in trauma diagnosis in children, especially for complex fractures. The aim of this study was to examine the diagnostic value of ultra-low-dose-CT (ULD-CT) with an effective dose equal to that of radiographs in an experimental study and to compare its results with those of radiographs. Materials and Methods: Limb bones of dead young pigs served as a model for pediatric bones. A total of 51 fractured and non-fractured bones were examined with a 64 multislice-CT with a standard dose protocol as gold standard, with two ultra-low-dose-protocols, and with standard radiographs with different exposures. Results: In spite of high background noise the examinations of ULD-CT were not adequate only in 2 of 204 cases. ULD-CT was slightly superior to radiographs in detection of fractures. ULD-CT could significantly better characterize the fractures than radiographs. The overall result of ULD-CT was significantly better than that of radiographs with standard exposure. Conclusion: ULD-CT with the effective dose of radiographs is successfully applicable in pediatric fracture diagnosis, and its overall result is significantly better than that of radiographs.