Application of European Commission Reference Dose Levels in Some Common CT Examinations in King AbdulAziz University Hospital

摘要

"CT doses now represent the greatest single source of medical exposure and the use of CT is increasing rapidly. In some departments, CT scanning is about 15 % of total examinations but may account for 70 % of the dose delivered". Many ways are found to describe and measure radiation dose in CT. Recently, European Guidelines (EG) on quality criteria for CT were published by the European Commission (EC), in which two dose descriptors, weighted computed tomography dose index (CTDI_W) and dose-length product (DLP), were proposed as reference dose levels (RDLs). It should not be exceeded without special clinical reasons. These dose levels can be used as a guideline if national reference dose levels have not yet been established. In this study measurements are carried out using a pencil shaped ionization chamber of active length 100 mm (RADCAL), and TLD 100 chips. The objective of this study is to investigate routine protocols of some common CT examinations utilized in the KAU Hospital in terms of imaging technique and radiation dose and to compare results with EC RDLs.