Establishment of diagnostic reference levels in computed tomography in two large hospitals in Oman

Yassine Bouchareb; Amal Al-Maimani; Al-Yaqin Al-Balushi; Maather Al-Kalbani; Hasina Al-Maskari; Humoud Al-Dhuhli; Faiza Al-Kindi

doi:10.1093/rpd/ncad225

Establishment of diagnostic reference levels in computed tomography in two large hospitals in Oman

Radiat Prot Dosimetry. 2023 Oct 18;199(17):2148-2155. doi: 10.1093/rpd/ncad225.

Authors

Yassine Bouchareb¹, Amal Al-Maimani², Al-Yaqin Al-Balushi³, Maather Al-Kalbani³, Hasina Al-Maskari⁴, Humoud Al-Dhuhli², Faiza Al-Kindi⁴

Affiliations

¹ Sultan Qaboos University, College of Medicine & Health Sciences, Muscat, Oman.
² Sultan Qaboos University Hospital, Radiology and Molecular Imaging, Muscat, Oman.
³ Sultan Qaboos University, College of Science, Muscat, Oman.
⁴ Radiology Department, Royal Hospital, PO. Box 1331, Muscat, Oman.

PMID: 37594414
DOI: 10.1093/rpd/ncad225

Abstract

This study aimed to estimate diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) for the most frequent computed tomography (CT) imaging examinations to monitor and better control radiation doses delivered to patients. Seven CT imaging examinations: Head, Chest, Chest High Resolution (CHR), Abdomen Pelvis (AP), Chest Abdomen Pelvis (CAP), Kidneys Ureters Bladder (KUB) and Cardiac, were considered. CT dosimetric quantities and patient demographics were collected from data storage systems. Local typical values for DRLs were calculated for CTDIvol (mGy), dose length product (DLP) (mGy·cm) and effective doses (mSv) were estimated for each examination. The calculated DRLs were given as (median CTDIvol (mGy):median DLP (mGy·cm)): Head: 39:657; Chest: 13:451; CHR: 6:228; AP: 12:578; CAP: 20:807; KUB: 7:315, and Cardiac: 2:31. Estimated effective doses for Head, Chest, CHR, AP, CAP, KUB and Cardiac were 1.3, 12.7, 6.3, 12.5, 18.1, 5.8 and 0.8 mSv, respectively. The estimated DRLs will act as guidance doses to prevent systematic excess of patient doses.