Experts offer pointers for optimizing radiation dose in chest CT

Chest CT is the third most commonly performed CT examination, frequently used to diagnose the cause of clinical signs or symptoms of the chest, such as cough, shortness of breath, chest pain or fever.

Regardless of the body region being scanned, dose reduction must always start with making sure that there is a justifiable clinical indication for CT scanning.

“Use of the appropriate radiation dose for chest CT is especially important because of direct radiation exposure of breasts, lungs and other organs, such as the thyroid, which represent some of the most radiosensitive organs in the human body,” said Mahadevappa Mahesh, MS, PhD, author of the article.

Investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, in Boston, MA, and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, reviewed practical strategies for reducing radiation dose associated with chest CT examinations.

“Radiation dose reduction for chest CT requires tweaking of scanning protocols and techniques on the basis of patient age, size, clinical indications and follow-up imaging,” said Mahesh.

Other specific strategies for dose reduction on chest CT involve the stratification of CT protocols on the basis of clinical indications, which determines the required image quality for assessing specific abnormalities in question.

“Pediatric chest CT should always be performed at lower radiation doses compared with chest CT in adult patients,” said Mahesh.

Investigators also emphasize that limiting scan length using appropriate scan parameters such as lower tube current, automatic exposure control and lowering tube voltage for thin patients, are key to reducing radiation dose for chest CT examinations in children and adults.

For more information about radiation safety in children, visit www.imagegently.org.

For more information about radiation safety in adults, visit www.imagewisely.org.

For more information about JACR, visit www.jacr.org.

To receive an electronic copy of an article appearing in the JACR, or to set up an interview with a JACR author, please contact Heather Curry at 703-390-9822 or PR@acr.org

Media Contact

Heather Curry EurekAlert!

More Information:

http://www.acr.org

All latest news from the category: Health and Medicine

This subject area encompasses research and studies in the field of human medicine.

Among the wide-ranging list of topics covered here are anesthesiology, anatomy, surgery, human genetics, hygiene and environmental medicine, internal medicine, neurology, pharmacology, physiology, urology and dental medicine.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Lighting up the future

New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….

Partners & Sponsors