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Diagnostic reference levels of paediatric computed tomography examinations performed at a dedicated Australian paediatric hospital
Author(s) -
Bibbo Giovanni,
Brown Scott,
Linke Rebecca
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of medical imaging and radiation oncology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.31
H-Index - 43
eISSN - 1754-9485
pISSN - 1754-9477
DOI - 10.1111/1754-9485.12488
Subject(s) - medicine , computed tomography , percentile , radiation dose , radiology , effective dose (radiation) , medical physics , nuclear medicine , statistics , mathematics
Diagnostic Reference Levels ( DRL ) of procedures involving ionizing radiation are important tools to optimizing radiation doses delivered to patients and in identifying cases where the levels of doses are unusually high. This is particularly important for paediatric patients undergoing computed tomography ( CT ) examinations as these examinations are associated with relatively high‐dose. Methods Paediatric CT studies, performed at our institution from January 2010 to March 2014, have been retrospectively analysed to determine the 75th and 95th percentiles of both the volume computed tomography dose index ( CTDI vol ) and dose‐length product ( DLP ) for the most commonly performed studies to: establish local diagnostic reference levels for paediatric computed tomography examinations performed at our institution, benchmark our DRL with national and international published paediatric values, and determine the compliance of CT radiographer with established protocols.Results The derived local 75th percentile DRL have been found to be acceptable when compared with those published by the Australian National Radiation Dose Register and two national children's hospitals, and at the international level with the National Reference Doses for the UK . The 95th percentiles of CTDI vol for the various CT examinations have been found to be acceptable values for the CT scanner Dose‐Check Notification. Benchmarking CT radiographers shows that they follow the set protocols for the various examinations without significant variations in the machine setting factors. Conclusion The derivation of DRL has given us the tool to evaluate and improve the performance of our CT service by improved compliance and a reduction in radiation dose to our paediatric patients. We have also been able to benchmark our performance with similar national and international institutions.