Observational studyBMC emergency medicine2021
Differences in radiation dose for computed tomography of the brain among pediatric patients at the emergency departments: an observational study.
Observational study in BMC emergency medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Identifying optimal dose head CT acquisition techniques through cluster analysis from 904,209 scans.European radiology · 2026Article
- From Anatomical to Clinical DRLs: Establishing Indication-Based CT Dose Benchmarks in Saudi Arabia.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Radiation dose of computed tomography in pediatric head trauma imaging.Neuroradiology · 2026Article
- Cranial Computer Tomography with Photon Counting and Energy-Integrated Detectors: Objective Comparison in the Same Patients.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Dual-Layer Detector Head CT to Maintain Image Quality While Reducing the Radiation Dose in Pediatric Patients.AJNR. American journal of neuroradiology · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundComputed tomography (CT) is associated with a risk of cancer development. Strategies to reduce radiation doses vary between centers. We compared radiation doses of CT brain studies between pediatric and general emergency departments (EDs), and determine the proportion studies performed within the reference levels recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP).
methodsA retrospective review was carried out in a healthcare network consisting of one pediatric ED and three general hospital EDs. Pediatric patients less than 16 years old with CT brain studies performed between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2018 were included. Information on demographic, diagnosis, volume-averaged computed-tomography dose index and dose length product (DLP) were collected. Effective dose was then calculated from DLP using conversion factors, termed k-coefficients which were derived using a 16 cm head CT dose phantom.
resultsFour hundred and seventy-nine CT brain studies were performed - 379 (79.1%) at the pediatric ED. Seizure (149, 31.1%), head injury (147, 30.7%) and altered mental status (44, 9.2%) were the top three ED diagnoses. The median effective dose estimates were higher in general than pediatric EDs, particularly for those aged > 3 to ≤6 years old [1.57 mSv (IQR 1.42-1.79) versus 1.93 mSv (IQR 1.51-2.28), p = 0.047], > 6 to ≤10 years old [1.43 mSv (IQR 1.27-1.67) versus 1.94 mSv (IQR 1.61-2.59), p = 0.002) and > 10 years old (1.68 mSv (IQR 1.32-1.72) versus 2.03 mSv (IQR 1.58-2.88), p < 0.001). Overall, 233 (48.6%) and 13 (2.7%) studies were within the reference levels recommended by ICRP 60 and 103 respectively.
conclusionsRadiation doses for CT brain studies were significantly higher at general EDs and less than half of the studies were within the reference levels recommended by ICRP. The development of diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) as a benchmark and clinical justification for performing CT studies can help reduce the radiation risks in the pediatric population.
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