Dose Study 2007

At the beginning of Computed Tomography (CT) the primary concern was to develop new standards for scanning protocols. The priority for dose aspects was low. This has changed: today CT contributes up to 50% of the resultant collective dose from diagnostic radiology. It is recognised as a high dose modality.

In 2007 the Radioprotection department of the Ministry of Health, the Federation of Radiologists and the Public Research Centre Henri Tudor investigated in a CT dose study. They wanted to raise the awareness regarding this topic and give an overview of currently established dose values in Luxembourg.

By using paper-based questionnaires the data were collected. Luxembourg has nine hospitals with radiological departments and eleven CT scanners, five General Electric CT scanners (Waukesha, USA) and six Siemens CT scanners (Forchheim, Germany). The assistant medical technician (AMT) in the different radiological units randomly collected about 1400 sample patients for the protocols head, facial bones/sinuses, lumbar spine, chest, abdomen and cervical. With CT Expo, a Microsoft Excel application to calculate dose values in CT, all relevant dose values have been assessed. The dose value CTDIw is conform to the reference dose values in Luxembourg. But in several cases the Dose-Length-Product had slightly increased. Therefore an optimsation is needed.

A well visited symposium discussed the results of the study with all involved professions. Dedicated information, developed by technical and medical experts in CT optimizations, was made available to the Luxembourgish hospitals.

You will find all information related to the symposium in the Guides, Manuals and Papers section.