Evaluation of Absorbed Dose of Critical Organ in Rando Phantom under Head, Abdomen and Pelvis Spiral CT Scan by Thermo Luminescent Dosimetery - TLD

Background & Objectives: Computed tomography (CT) represents 11% of all diagnostic radiology procedures but it contributes to almost 67% of the total effective dose to the human population. In head and neck CT which consist of 1/3 of total CT scans, other critical organs such as lenses and thyroid are in the radiation field. Also in the abdomen and pelvis scan, irradiation of ovaries is unavoidable. Because of high sensitivity of these organs, the probability of abnormality and cancer in these organs has increased. Therefore the dose assessment in these organs is very important. The aim of this study is to estimate the absorbed dose in critical organ of patient undergoing common head, neck, abdomen and pelvic spiral CT scan. Materials & Methods: In this study, Lithium fluoride thermo luminescent dosimeters (TLD-100, Harshaw) were used to determine the absorbed dose of critical organ of tissue equivalent rando phantom (Alderson research industries, Inc, Stanford, Conn, U.S.A). The phantom was sectional in design and manufactured with a 2.5 cm slab thickness. Each section contained some holes that allowed accommodation of TLDs. At least two crystals were placed in each hole. The average value of the TLD readings was taken as the organ dose. Readouts were obtained on a Harshaw 4500 reader (Harshaw, Ohio, USA). For calibration, the annealed dosimeters were exposed to an X-ray beam resulting from 120 kVp tube voltage and calibration curve was plotted. Results: result of this study showed during head CT scan the maximum absorbed dose belongs to occipital bones skin. Which were about 11.45 mGy and the minimum absorbed dose belong to thyroid gland which was 0.5 mGy. During abdomen & pelvic spiral CT, the maximum absorbed dose of abdomen skin was 23.32 mGy and the minimum absorbed dose in the eye region was 0.15 mGy. The readout results are correlated with the results of spiral CT detector with the “ALARA” principle, we recommend suitable techniques should be selected to reduce absorbed dose of critical organ without reducing image quality. Conclusion: further research is required to investigate whether modification of the parameters used during routine spiral CT scan can be limited absorbed dose of critical organ without a significant loss of image quality.