Estimations of Organ and Effective Doses in Pediatric X-ray CT Examinations

X-ray CT examinations have been performed for not only adult patients but also children because of the usefulness for the high quality medical images. However, the doses in CT examinations are relatively high compared to other general X-ray imaging, so that the optimizations on CT scanning are very important on radiation protection in medicine. The organ doses of X-ray CT for pediatric patients were measured by using a pediatric anthropomorphic phantom, representing a 6-year-old child body, and dosimeters located on the surface and inside the phantom under condition of routine clinical MDCT examinations. The effective doses were calculated based on the measured organ doses and tissue weighting factors of ICRP publication 60. The estimated absorbed doses of brains were 20-80mGy for the pediatric head CT examinations. The organ doses inside exposure area of X-ray CT scanning for the thorax and abdomen of children were 5.9–20.8mGy, varying 3-4 times among hospitals. The effective doses were estimated to be 6.6-8.2mSv for thorax CT, and 5.1-14.2mSv for abdomen-pelvis CT examinations. Comparing to the doses of CT examinations for adults, the doses for children were similar to or lower than those of adults.3rd WHO International Conference on Children\u27s Health and The Environmen