Excess of radiation burden for young testicular cancer patients using automatic exposure control and contrast agent on whole-body computed tomography imaging

: Niiniviita Hannele, Kulmala Jarmo, Pölönen Tuukka, Määttänen Heli, Järvinen Hannu, Salminen Eeva

Publisher: ASSOC RADIOLOGY & ONCOLOGY

: 2017

: Radiology and Oncology

: RADIOLOGY AND ONCOLOGY

: RADIOL ONCOL

: 51

: 2

: 235

: 240

: 6

: 1318-2099

: 1581-3207

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/raon-2017-0012

: https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/raon.2017.51.issue-2/raon-2017-0012/raon-2017-0012.xml

Background. The aim of the study was to assess patient dose from whole-body computed tomography (CT) in association with patient size, automatic exposure control (AEC) and intravenous (IV) contrast agent.Patients and methods. Sixty-five testicular cancer patients (mean age 28 years) underwent altogether 279 wholebody CT scans from April 2000 to April 2011. The mean number of repeated examinations was 4.3. The GE LightSpeed 16 equipped with AEC and the Siemens Plus 4 CT scanners were used for imaging. Whole-body scans were performed with (216) and without (63) IV contrast. The ImPACT software was used to determine the effective and organ doses.Results. Patient doses were independent (p < 0.41) of patient size when the Plus 4 device (mean 7.4 mSv, SD 1.7 mSv) was used, but with the LightSpeed 16 AEC device, the dose (mean 14 mSv, SD 4.6 mSv) increased significantly (p < 0.001) with waist cirfumference. Imaging with the IV contrast agent caused significantly higher (13% Plus 4, 35% LightSpeed 16) exposure than non-contrast imaging (p < 0.001).Conclusions. Great caution on the use of IV contrast agent and careful set-up of the AEC modulation parameters is recommended to avoid excessive radiation exposure on the whole-body CT imaging of young patients.