Local dose survey on paediatric multi-detector CT: A preliminary result

Abstract

For paediatric patients, where there exists a wide range of patient size, and where radiation risk is two to three times more prevalent than on adults, the need of a more stringent care on dose optimization becomes more crucial and demanding, particularly on computed tomography (CT) procedures. To first investigate the need of optimization, a preliminary dose survey was carried out by recording dose data from head, chest, and abdomen MDCT procedures for paediatric patients. The survey from a total of 343 paediatric CT patients was conducted on March-September 2017 at Harapan Kita Maternal and Children’s Hospital as Indonesia’s primary referral hospital for paediatric patients. Results per age group were compared with available works from other regions or countries to first indicate the need for optimization. The preliminary result indicated that head scans for 10–15, years old patients require optimization. The evaluation of protocol selections is proposed as an appropriate action.