Establishment of CT Diagnostic Reference Level in Paediatric Population

Abstract

Radiation risk estimated amongst paediatric populations are the concern issues of radiation protection in dealing with ionizing radiation sources. In 2010 according to United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiations (UNSCEAR) report that the Computed tomography (CT) scan contributed over 20% higher radiation dose in medical imaging. Diagnostic reference levels (DRL) were used as a tool in optimization of practice in minimization of radiation dose and additional with image noise as an index in diagnostic image quality in CT. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the radiation doses in paediatric CT examinations in establish local DRL. Data were retrospectively collected from one single institution for a period between January 2016 and December 2018. Patient demographic was collected from the CT console (PACS) and recorded in a standardized form.145 subjects were included in this study where subject’s age was less than 15 years old and underwent for CT brain, CT thorax, and CT chest-abdomen-pelvis (CT CAP) examinations. The study was categorized into 3 groups (1-<5years), (5-<10 years) and (10-15 years) and was found that the highest effective dose were recorded in CT CAP, CT thorax and CT brain in age category 10-15 years were 11.7 mGy, 4.0 mGy and 2.9 mGy respectively. CT CAP shows higher DRL in term of DLP in oldest age groups compared to the study from Korea and Switzeland. Hence, justification and optimization due to the increase in the cancer occurrence in CT examination should be done regarding the report on the risk of CT exposure in children.