The effect of z overscanning on radiation burden of pediatric patients undergoing head CT with multidetector scanners: a Monte Carlo study

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of z overscanning on eye lens dose and effective dose received by pediatric patients undergoing head CT examinations. A pediatric patient study was carried out to obtain the exposure parameters and data regarding the eye lens position with respect to imaged volume boundaries. This information was used to simulate CT exposures by Monte Carlo code. The Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP, version 4C2) radiation transport code and five mathematical anthropomorphic phantoms representing newborn, 1-, 5-, 10-, and 15-year-old patient, were employed in the current study. To estimate effective dose, the weighted computed tomography dose index was calculated by cylindrical polymethyl-methacrylate phantoms of 9.7, 13.1, 15.4, 16.1, and 16.9 cm in diameter representing the pediatric head of newborn, 1-, 5-, 10-, and 15-year-old individuals, respectively. The validity of the Monte Carlo calculated approach was verified by comparison with dose data obtained using physical pediatric anthropomorphic phantoms and thermoluminescence dosimetry. For all patients studied, the eye lenses were located in the region -1 to 3 cm from the first slice of the imaged volume. Doses from axial scans were always lower than those from corresponding helical examinations. The percentage differences in normalized eye lens absorbed dose between contiguous axial and helical examinations with pitch=1 were found to be up to 10.9%, when the eye lenses were located inside the region to be imaged. When the eye lenses were positioned 0-3 cm far from the first slice of region to be imaged, the normalized dose to the lens from contiguous axial examinations was up to 11 times lower than the corresponding values from helical mode with pitch=1. The effective dose from axial examinations was up to 24% lower than corresponding values from helical examinations with pitch=1. In conclusion, it is more dose efficient to use axial mode acquisition rather than helical scan for pediatric head examinations, if there are no overriding clinical considerations.