Management of Radiation Dose to Pediatric Patients undergoing Ct Examination at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra – Ghana

Abstract

In this work management of pediatric patients doses for Computed Tomography examinations have been studied at Korle- Bu Teaching Hospital. The assessment of the management system involved:  Estimation of Weighted Computed Tomography Dose Index (CTDI_w), Volumetric Computed Tomography Dose Index (CTDIvol), Dose Length Product (DLP) and Effective dose (E); and Evaluation of quality assurance and quality control programmes to optimize pediatric patient doses. The frequency of CT examinations for pediatric patients accounted for 1300 out 5200 examinations        ( 25% ) of the total examinations recorded  for the year 2008-2009.Adult CT exposure parameters   such as the KV, mAs, scan length, pitch, and collimation values were being used in pediatric CT examination.  Effective dose estimated for children were higher than that for adults by factors of 5.1, 1.8, 3.1 and 3.9 more for head, chest, abdomen and pelvis examinations respectively. From the questionnaire administered and dosimetry results there was no established justification policy, procedures and referral criteria for CT examination requests for children. There was no Quality Assurance Committee to see to the implementation of dose management system dedicated to pediatric patients. There was the need for the Hospital Authorities to formulate policies in the training of CT equipment operators, radiographers and radiologist in modern CT technology as well as in the selection of appropriate parameters tailored to individual patient size that can achieve desirable diagnostic image quality at low doses.

Keywords: CT examination, pediatric, X-ray, CTDIw, CTDIvol, D LP