Tomografía computada: grandes beneficios con gran responsabilidad

Abstract

Nowadays, tomographic studies are considered almost routine due to their wide availability and diagnostic ac-curacy. Nevertheless, even through the ionizing radiation emitted by this imaging method is deemed low, their us-age must be responsible and attached to good practice to avoid overexposure. This article was designed to know the radiation dose to which patients are exposed during CT scans performed by resident physicians in their train-ing and compare the effective doses obtained with those recommended by the American Association of Physicists in Medicine. The effective doses of 419 tomographic studies of different body areas practiced by resident physicians with a General Electric scanner Lightspeed Ultra 16 beams were calculated. The imaging studies were performed on a population ranging between one and 102 years of age, with an average of 52.7 years. The values of the effective doses were surpassed in 25.7% of the studies, with an average of 3.1 mSv above the recommendations of the international guidelines. The highest rate of overexposure was observed in contrast cranial studies. Radiologist physicians and technologists must improve the technique according to the principles of radiation safety to diminish stochastic risks, raising awareness of radiation exposure for a responsible usage of diagnostic CT scans.