Assessment of Organ Dose and Effective Dose from Head Computed Tomography in Northwestern Nigeria

Abstract

  The amount of radiation dose received by patient undergoing Head computed tomography examination in General Amadi rimi orthopedics and specialist hospital, Katsina has been estimated. Computed tomography dose output was used to determine the effective dose and organ dose of non-contrast to the head region of 30 patients. The tube potential ranged from 127 kVp to 130 kVp, while the mAs ranged from 130 mAs to 140. The aims of this study are, first, to assess the mean effective doses received by patients undergoing Head CT examinations and compare them with other studies. Mean values of CTDIvol. was (43.1mGy), the mean DLP values was (1206 mGy.cm), the mean effective dose (HEDLP) value was (2.4 mSv). The result was compared with the European Union reference dose level and other published factor. HEDLP was slightly higher than the values reported from the literature for the united nation and European union report by 0.4 factor. It was concluded that patient organ doses could be substantially minimized, optimized and justified. The high variation in the doses in this study may be due to differences in imaging protocols such as large range of mAs and scan length and also algorithms of the scanner.