Published June 2014 | Version v1
Journal article

TH-C-18A-08: A Management Tool for CT Dose Monitoring, Analysis, and Protocol Review

  • 1. Stanford Hospital and Clinics, Stanford, CA (United States)
  • 2. Stanford University, Stanford, CA (United States)

Description

Purpose: To develop a customizable tool for enterprise-wide managing of CT protocols and analyzing radiation dose information of CT exams for a variety of quality control applications Methods: All clinical CT protocols implemented on the 11 CT scanners at our institution were extracted in digital format. The original protocols had been preset by our CT management team. A commercial CT dose tracking software (DoseWatch,GE healthcare,WI) was used to collect exam information (exam date, patient age etc.), scanning parameters, and radiation doses for all CT exams. We developed a Matlab-based program (MathWorks,MA) with graphic user interface which allows to analyze the scanning protocols with the actual dose estimates, and compare the data to national (ACR,AAPM) and internal reference values for CT quality control. Results: The CT protocol review portion of our tool allows the user to look up the scanning and image reconstruction parameters of any protocol on any of the installed CT systems among about 120 protocols per scanner. In the dose analysis tool, dose information of all CT exams (from 05/2013 to 02/2014) was stratified on a protocol level, and within a protocol down to series level, i.e. each individual exposure event. This allows numerical and graphical review of dose information of any combination of scanner models, protocols and series. The key functions of the tool include: statistics of CTDI, DLP and SSDE, dose monitoring using user-set CTDI/DLP/SSDE thresholds, look-up of any CT exam dose data, and CT protocol review. Conclusion: our inhouse CT management tool provides radiologists, technologists and administration a first-hand near real-time enterprise-wide knowledge on CT dose levels of different exam types. Medical physicists use this tool to manage CT protocols, compare and optimize dose levels across different scanner models. It provides technologists feedback on CT scanning operation, and knowledge on important dose baselines and thresholds

Additional details

Identifiers

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Medical Physics
Journal Volume
41
Journal Issue
6
Journal Page Range
p. 558
ISSN
0094-2405
CODEN
MPHYA6

INIS

Country of Publication
United States
Country of Input or Organization
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
INIS RN
46115728
Subject category
S60: APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES;
Quality check status
Yes
Descriptors DEI
CAT SCANNING; IMAGE PROCESSING; MANAGEMENT; MONITORING; PATIENTS; QUALITY CONTROL; RADIATION DOSES;
Descriptors DEC
COMPUTERIZED TOMOGRAPHY; CONTROL; DIAGNOSTIC TECHNIQUES; DOSES; PROCESSING; TOMOGRAPHY;

Optional Information

Notes
(c) 2014 American Association of Physicists in Medicine