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Radiation Dose in High-Pitch Pediatric Cardiac CTA: Correlation Between Lung Dose and CTDIvol, DLP, and Size Specific Dose Estimates (SSDE)


J Wang

J Wang*, A Kino , B Newman , F Chan , Stanford University, Stanford, CA

Presentations

SU-C-12A-5 Sunday 1:00PM - 1:55PM Room: 12A

Purpose:
To investigate the radiation dose for pediatric high pitch cardiac CTA

Methods:
A total of 14 cases were included in this study, with mean age of 6.2 years (ranges from 2 months to 15 years). Cardiac CTA was performed using a dual-source CT system (Definition Flash, Siemens). Tube voltage (70, 80 and 100kV) was chosen based on patient weight. All patients were scanned using a high-pitch spiral mode (pitch ranges from 2.5 to 3) with tube current modulation technique (CareDose4D, Siemens). For each case, the three dimensional dose distributions were calculated using a Monte Carlo software package (IMPACTâ‚‹MC, CT Image GmbH). Scanning parameters of each exam, including tube voltage, tube current, beam-shaping filters, beam collimation, were defined in the Monte Carlo calculation. Tube current profile along projection angles was obtained from projection data of each tube, which included data within the over-scanning range along z direction. The volume of lungs was segmented out with CT images (3DSlicer). Lung doses of all patients were calculated and compared with CTDIvol, DLP, and SSDE.

Results:
The average (range) of CTDIvol, DLP and SSDE of all patients was 1.19 mGy (0.58 to 3.12mGy), 31.54 mGy*cm (12.56 to 99 mGy*cm), 2.26 mGy (1.19 to 6.24 mGy), respectively. Radiation dose to the lungs ranged from 0.83 to 4.18 mGy. Lung doses correlated with CTDIvol, DLP and SSDE with correlation coefficients(k) at 0.98, 0.93, and 0.99. However, for the cases with CTDIvol less than 1mGy, only SSDE preserved a strong correlation with lung doses (k=0.83), while much weaker correlations were found for CTDIvol (k=0.29) and DLP (k=-0.47).

Conclusion:
Lung doses to pediatric patients during Cardiac CTA were estimated. SSDE showed the most robust correlation with lung doses in contrast to CTDIvol and DLP.


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