On exposure justification in pediatric CT examinations

The prescriber as well as the practitioner are involved in the exposure justification process according to BSS 115 and 97/43/EEC Directive. The aim of this paper is to assess the medical exposure justification by means of the guide for the usage of medical imaging and to analyze if this approach is appropriate to ensure a suitable and objective justification. The study was performed in a Romanian pediatric emergency hospital. More than 300 records of CT investigations were analyzed and statistically processed in order to estimate the conformity with the guide recommendations and the risk in terms of effective dose received by patients. The result of this study shows that 35% of the investigations performed were not prescribed according to the guide recommendations. This result is significantly affected by the interpretable cases of the guide's comments. Consequently, the previous result decreases to 20 %. Corresponding dose in this case is 17 % of total dose due to all the exposures. In spite of the real progress in the field of patient radioprotection achieved by adopting of 97/43/EEC Directive and of the Good Practice Guide, the last one should be completed, improved, and disseminated especially to the prescribers. (author)