A Study of Radiation Dose Reduction for Patients Undergoing Abdominal Computed Tomography with Contrast Agent

Abstract

The present study aims to estimate the patient’s radiation dose during contrast-enhanced multiphase abdominal CT examinations to reduce the patient’s radiation dose and radiogenic risk associated with the procedures. The study was composed of 642 adult and pediatric patients who underwent multiphase contrast-enhanced abdominal CT examinations in nine hospitals. The data were classified according to the study protocol, consisting of standard-dose protocol, Combination of low dose with standard and high-quality dose protocol, and 3D sure exposure low dose protocol. The mean ± SD and range of patient dose in terms of volume CT dose index CTDIvol (mGy) and dose length product (DLP) mGy.cm respectively for the complete procedure were 12.88 ± 2.75 mGy (3.3–28.18) and 2555.4 ± 873.57 mGy.cm (257–9263.5) for standard-dose protocol and 7.01 ± 3.05 mGy (4–15.23) and 1331.48 ± 594.64 mGy.cm (708.5–3279) for Combination of low dose with standard and high-quality dose protocol and 5.2 ± 1.55 mGy (2.6–9.78) and 811.8 ± 156.76 mGy.cm (482.7–1155.8) for pure 3D sure exposure low dose protocol. The mean and range of effective doses were 38.33 ± 22.9 mSv (4.0–138.9), 19.97 mSv (10.6–49.2), and 12.18 mSv (7.2–17.3) respectively for previously mentioned protocols. The wide range of doses indicates that some patients have received an elevated dose, especially in standard dose protocol. Predicted cancer risk per procedure were 2, 1, and 0.6 cancer case pre thousandth procedures respectively for mentioned protocols, 3D sure exposure low dose protocol provides 40 to 70 % reduction in effective dose without compromising the image quality.