Optimisation of protection in the medical exposure of recurrent adult patients due to computed tomography procedures: development of recurrent exposures reference levels

ConclusionThe management of patients with recurrent exposures is highly variable among hospitals leading to a 50-fold variation inI100;1 and to a tenfold variation inI100;3.RERL could be established and used by taking as a RERL quantity the CED and as a RERL value the 75th percentile of the third quartiles of the distribution of the yearly CED obtained by surveying different hospitals.Clinical relevance statementThis is the first ever multicentre study that quantifies recurrent exposures in terms of incidence and cumulative incidence of patients with CED  ≥ 100 mSv. RERL establishment and use could benefit the optimisation of radioprotection of patients with recurrent exposures.Key pointsThis is the first multicentre study estimating yearly incidence and 3-year cumulative incidence of patients with cumulative effective doses  ≥ 100 mSv.In this study, a 50-fold inter centre variation between the maximum (5.1%) and the minimum value (0.1%) of yearly incidence of patients with cumulative effective doses  ≥ 100 mSv was reported. The range of the 3-year cumulative incidence extended from 1.1 to 11.4% (a tenfold variation)The third quartile of the yearly cumulative effective doses in a centre showed a strong positive correlation with the yearly incidence of patients with cumulative effective doses  ≥ 100 mSv, with a potential of being used to set reference levels for recurrent exposures.
Source: European Radiology - Category: Radiology Source Type: research