Survey of computed tomography doses and establishment of national diagnostic reference levels in the Republic of Belarus

S A Kharuzhyk; S A Matskevich; A E Filjustin; E V Bogushevich; S A Ugolkova

doi:10.1093/rpd/ncq070

Survey of computed tomography doses and establishment of national diagnostic reference levels in the Republic of Belarus

Radiat Prot Dosimetry. 2010 Apr-May;139(1-3):367-70. doi: 10.1093/rpd/ncq070. Epub 2010 Feb 24.

Authors

S A Kharuzhyk¹, S A Matskevich, A E Filjustin, E V Bogushevich, S A Ugolkova

Affiliation

¹ Department of Diagnostic Radiology, NN Alexandrov National Cancer Center of Belarus, Minsk, Belarus. skharuzhyk@nld.by

PMID: 20181649
DOI: 10.1093/rpd/ncq070

Abstract

Computed tomography dose index (CTDI) was measured on eight CT scanners at seven public hospitals in the Republic of Belarus. The effective dose was calculated using normalised values of effective dose per dose-length product (DLP) over various body regions. Considerable variations of the dose values were observed. Mean effective doses amounted to 1.4 +/- 0.4 mSv for brain, 2.6 +/- 1.0 mSv for neck, 6.9 +/- 2.2 mSv for thorax, 7.0 +/- 2.3 mSv for abdomen and 8.8 +/- 3.2 mSv for pelvis. Diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) were proposed by calculating the third quartiles of dose value distributions (body region/volume CTDI, mGy/DLP, mGy cm): brain/60/730, neck/55/640, thorax/20/500, abdomen/25/600 and pelvis/25/490. It is evident that the protocols need to be optimised on some of the CT scanners, in view of the fact that these are the first formulated DRLs for the Republic of Belarus.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Body Burden*
Data Collection
Guidelines as Topic*
Radiation Dosage*
Radiometry / standards*
Reference Values
Republic of Belarus
Tomography, X-Ray Computed / standards*