• A recent retrospective study examined CT radiation doses in different types of facilities

 

• Mean patient age: 12 years
• Authors reviewed radiation doses for nearly 240,000 CT scans in over 500 facilities
•  
• The facilities were categorized into 4 groups: 

 

• 1) academic pediatric,
• 2) non-academic pediatric,
• 3) academic adult, 
• 4) non-academic adult

 

Most (65%) scans were performed at nonacademic adult centers

 

• Radiation doses were significantly higher at adult facilities vs. pediatric facilities
• Also, radiation doses were higher at non-academic vs. academic facilities
• For example, the largest children received twice the radiation dose for abdomen-pelvis CT scans performed at nonacademic adult facilities compared with academic pediatric facilities
  • 11.9 mGy vs. 5.8 mGy
• Academic pediatric facilities use lower radiation doses than do nonacademic pediatric or adult facilities for all head CT examinations and for the majority of chest and abdomen-pelvis

 

References

Strauss et al., 2019. Radiation Dose for Pediatric CTT: Comparison of Pediatric versus Adult Imaging Facilities