Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate radiation protection techniques in computed tomography (CT) scanning, address concerns on the increased population exposure during CT procedures, and provide a review on dose management and optimization procedures. Radiation protection in CT requires regular dose surveys and optimization of CT exposure parameters, establishing and/or implementing diagnostic references (DRLs), implementation of a comprehensive quality assurance program, reference dose levels, and CT dose saving protocols. Patient dose reduction of 40-60%, 50%, 20-30%, 20-40%, 30-50% can be achieved using tube current modulation, beam filters, thyroid and breast shields, low tube voltage for abdominal CT, automatic pitch adaptation; respectively. CT users are strongly encouraged to take advantage of these dose reduction techniques while maintaining diagnostic image quality. Current review provides updated radiation protection measures for minimizing patient radiation dose in CT without adversely affecting the quality of diagnostic information.

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