Dosimetric Study of CT Chest Scans Using Adult Phantoms

The spread of Computed Tomography (CT) exams in clinical applications has been expanding in the diagnosis of traumas, staging and screening of tumors, brain diseases etc. These uses promoted a significant increase in the absorbed dose by patients and, consequently, in the population's doses. The patient's dose values on Computed Tomography depend on the scan acquisition protocols. Today, CT scans are a very fast, painless and non-invasive tests, performed with high quality images, widely accessed by the general population. Therefore, it is essential to improve protocols, seeking lower doses, without impairing the image diagnostic quality. The doses received by the people are related to risks of stochastic effects, and these risks increase with the dose value and a long life expectancy.