Effectiveness of protective patient equipment for CT: an anthropomorphic phantom study

Protective patient equipment for CT examinations is not routinely provided. The aim of this study was to determine whether, and if so what, specific protective equipment is beneficial during CT scans. The absorbed organ doses and the effective doses for thorax, abdomen/pelvis and brain CT investigation with and without the use of protective patient equipment have been determined and compared. All measurements were carried out on modern multislice CT scanner using an anthropomorphic phantom and thermoluminescence dosemeters. The measurements show that protective equipment reduces the dose within the scattered beam area. The highest organ dose reduction was found in organs that protrude from the trunk like the testes or the female breasts that can largely be covered by the protective equipment. The most reduction of the effective dose was found in the male abdomen/pelvis examination (0.32 mSv), followed by the brain (0.11 mSv) and the thorax (0.06 mSv). It is concluded that the use of protective equipment can reduce the applied dose to the patien

Efficiency evaluation of leaded glasses and visors for eye lens dose reduction during fluoroscopy guided interventional procedures

PURPOSE Fluoroscopy guided interventional procedures guarantee high benefits for patients, but are associated with high levels of radiation exposure for the medical staff. Their increasing use and complexity results in even higher radiation exposures, with a risk to exceed the annual dose limit of 20 mSv for the eye lens. The aim of the study was to evaluate the potential dose reduction of eye lens exposure for lead glasses and for two types of visors (half and full), used by physicians performing interventional procedures. METHODS Eye lens dose measurements were carried out on an anthropomorphic phantom simulating a physician performing a fluoroscopy guided interventional procedure. Dose reduction factors were calculated using high sensitivity thermoluminescent dosimeters. Moreover, a spatial dose distribution was generated for the two visors. RESULTS The dose reduction coefficient was found to be 1.6 for the glasses, 1.2 for the half visor and 4.5 for the full visor. CONCLUSIONS Optimal radiation protection requires a combination of different radiation protection equipment. Full visors that cover all the face of the operator are recommended, as they absorb scattered radiation reaching the eyes from all directions. Full visors should be prioritized over radiation protection glasses for cases where other protective equipment such as ceiling shielding cannot be used

Effectiveness of protective patient equipment for CT: an anthropomorphic phantom study

Protective patient equipment for CT examinations is not routinely provided. The aim of this study was to determine whether, and if so what, specific protective equipment is beneficial during CT scans. The absorbed organ doses and the effective doses for thorax, abdomen/pelvis and brain CT investigation with and without the use of protective patient equipment have been determined and compared. All measurements were carried out on modern multislice CT scanner using an anthropomorphic phantom and thermoluminescence dosemeters. The measurements show that protective equipment reduces the dose within the scattered beam area. The highest organ dose reduction was found in organs that protrude from the trunk like the testes or the female breasts that can largely be covered by the protective equipment. The most reduction of the effective dose was found in the male abdomen/pelvis examination (0.32 mSv), followed by the brain (0.11 mSv) and the thorax (0.06 mSv). It is concluded that the use of protective equipment can reduce the applied dose to the patient

Optimizing a perfusion CT protocol for head and neck cancer

Perfusion computed tomography (CTP) images tumor angiogenesis and can assess tumor aggressiveness. However, the CTP examinations are dose intensive. This study aimed to optimize a routinely used CTP protocol for the head and neck region in oncology in order to reduce the effective dose to the patient and simultaneously achieve the same image quality

Optimizing a perfusion CT protocol for head and neck cancer

Abstract Perfusion computed tomography (CTP) images tumor angiogenesis and can assess tumor aggressiveness. However, the CTP examinations are dose intensive. This study aimed to optimize a routinely used CTP protocol for the head and neck region in oncology in order to reduce the effective dose to the patient and simultaneously achieve the same image quality. The Alderson phantom was scanned on a GE Revolution CT scanner. A scan with our standard protocol for head and neck cancer patients was used (100kV, 80mAs, 5mm slice thickness and backprojection algorithm) and in seven predefined regions (ROI) the signal to noise ratio (SNR) was measured. For the dose optimized protocol, the tube voltage was lowered and the mAs adaptation protocol was used. To improve image quality different percentage of an adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASiR) was applied. For a better resolution we set the slice thickness to 2.5 mm. The mAs adaption range and the percentage of the ASiR reconstruction were varied until we found a combination with the same median SNR in the seven defined ROIs as for our old protocol. For the old and the optimized protocol dose measurements were performed using 25 LiF-TLDs. Organ doses were calculated and the effective dose was determined based on the weighting factors of ICRP103. The optimized scanning protocol used a voltage of 80kV, a mAs range between 15 and 80, a noise level of 10%, and 50% ASiR reconstruction. The median SNR ratio was slightly better (14% better SNR) with the new protocol. An effective dose of 8 mSv was measured with the original protocol and 4 mSv with the optimized scanning protocol. For organs in the scanning field the dose was reduced by a factor of 2 and outside the field by a factor of 2.2. Advanced reconstruction algorithms allow a significant dose reduction and an improvement of image resolution, while maintaining the image quality.</jats:p