CT examination effective doses in Saudi Arabia

Sulieman A 1 , Mahmoud MZ 2 , Serhan O 3 , Alonazi B 2 , Alkhorayef M 4 , Alzimami K 5 Show all authors , Bradley D 6

Affiliations 

  • 1 Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Radiology and Medical Imaging Department, P.O. Box 422, 11942, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: abdelmoneim_a@yahoo.com
  • 2 Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Radiology and Medical Imaging Department, P.O. Box 422, 11942, Saudi Arabia
  • 3 Radiology Department, King Khalid Hospital, Alkharj, Saudi Arabia
  • 4 King Saud University, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Radiological Sciences Department, P.O.Box 10219, Riyadh 11433, Saudi Arabia; Centre for Nuclear and Radiation Physics, Department of Physics, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH, United Kingdom
  • 5 King Saud University, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Radiological Sciences Department, P.O.Box 10219, Riyadh 11433, Saudi Arabia
  • 6 Centre for Nuclear and Radiation Physics, Department of Physics, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH, United Kingdom; Sunway University, Institute for Health Care Development, Jalan Universiti, 46150 PJ, Malaysia
Appl Radiat Isot, 2018 Nov;141:261-265.
PMID: 30054177 DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2018.07.011

Abstract

Patient effective doses and the associated radiation risks arising from particular computed tomography (CT) imaging procedures are assessed. The objectives of this research are to measure radiation doses for patients and to quantify the radiogenic risks from CT brain and chest procedures. Patient data were collected from five calibrated CT modality machines in Saudi Arabia. The results are from a study of a total of 60 patients examined during CT procedures using the calibrated CT units. For CT brain and chest, the mean patient effective doses were 1.9 mSv (with a range of 0.6-2.5 mSv) and 7.4 mSv (with a range of 0.5-34.8 mSv) respectively. The radiogenic risk to patients ranged from between 10-5 and 10-4 per procedure. With 65% of the CT procedure cases diagnosed as normal, this prompts re-evaluation of the referral criteria. The establishment of diagnostic reference levels (DRL) and implementation of radiation dose optimisation measures would further help reduce doses to optimal values.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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