A pediatric CT dose calculator is now available to estimate the effective radiation dose and additional lifetime risk of cancer for a child having a CT exam.
This free Web-based application is designed to educate radiologists and referring clinicians about the potential risks of CT scan exposure, and to place specific CT exams in context with recent cancer risk reports.
The tool uses patient age, scan reason, and dose-length product to provide broad estimates of typical dose to reference pediatric patient models. It presents radiation-induced risk of cancer in the context of baseline cancer risk in an effort to emphasize that a typical pediatric CT exam is generally associated with a very small additional risk of cancer compared to baseline risk.
The tool is the brainchild of Adam Alessio, PhD, a research assistant professor at the Imaging Research Laboratory of the University of Washington in Seattle, and Grace Phillips, MD, a pediatric radiologist at Seattle Children's Hospital. They describe how they developed the tool in an article published online in Pediatric Radiology (July 11, 2010).
The pediatric CT dose and cancer risk estimator can be accessed by clicking here.
Related Reading
Web site educates patients about radiation dose, July 2, 2009
Radiation exposure app release for iPhone, April 14, 2009
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