Computed tomography dose index, dose length product and effective dose for head CT in Iraqi hospitals

Abstract EN

CT scan is one of the important diagnostic machines which emit high radiation dose.

Iraqi hospitals and private clinics now use hundreds of CT scan machine which give dangerous dose to patients.

Therefore, this study is done in Iraqi hospitals to measure the CT scan dose received by adult patients during diagnoses of the head and compare the doses with established international reference dose levels.

The Volume CT dose index (CTDIV), dose length product (DLP) and effective dose (E) were evaluated for head of adult patients using four CT scan machine in three Iraqi hospitals [Baghdad teaching hospital (Toshiba 128) and (Philips 64), X-Ray institute (Toshiba 64) and specialized surgical hospital (Siemens 64)] were obtained values of about 61 head CT examination.

Generally the results of DLP and E values are higher than the most established international reference dose levels where CTDIW (54.74 mGy), DLP ( 1091.40 mGycm) and E ( 2.512 mSv).The bad selection of protocols and disused of automatic exposure control (AEC) system was then some patients will be exposed to an unnecessarily high radiation dose during CT examinations therefore operators need more training to minimize CT dose and keep good quality of image.