INDICATION-BASED NATIONAL DIAGNOSTIC REFERENCE LEVELS FOR PAEDIATRIC CT: A NEW APPROACH WITH PROPOSED VALUES

Indication-based national diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) for a few most common paediatric computed tomography (CT) examinations are proposed. Patient dose data (CTDIvol and dose length product) were collected for over 1000 patients in 4 university hospitals with best experiences in paediatric CT. Four indications for chest CT and two for abdomen (abdomen 1 pelvis), chest 1 abdomen and head CT were considered. The DRLs for the body examinations are proposed as exponential DRL-curves, where CTDIvol and dose length product are presented as a function of patient weight. The same DRL curve applies to all the indications studied. The basic 75 % level curve is supplemented by 50 % level curve to enable considerations on varying levels of technology. For head CT, DRLs are proposed for a few age groups (1, 1-5, 5-10 and 10-15 y), separately for routine CT and CT for ventricular size. The proposed DRLs are generally lower than the few published DRLs in other countries.