Avaliação de protocolos de varreduras por tomografia computadorizada de cabeça de recém-nascidos

Abstract

The Computed Tomography is a radiodiagnostic exam that most contributes to the population dose deposition. Because of that, the reduction of the radiation dose in these exams has become very important, especially for pediatric patients who have a longer life expectancy than the rest of population. This study purpose to compare the doses generated from newborns compared to adult patients in head Computed Tomography scans, of newborns in relation to the adult patient using three multiscans Computed Tomography equipment. The head phantoms in a cylindrical shape made in polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) were used, one to adult and another to newborn patient dimensions. The scans were performed in two General Electric Computed Tomography multiscans and another Computed Tomography Philips. The newborn head phantom was developed with the circumference of 34,54 cm. It is equivalent to a male head of 14 days old, a female head of 28 days old and to an adult head standard phantom. The doses received were compared between the Newborn head with the adult, and between the tree tomographers. The results show that three tomographers offer a higher dose to newborn phantoms than for adult phantoms. The highest recorded dose was 40,06 mGy for the newborn phantom and 30,83 mGy for the adult phantom. This newborn phantoms dose is 29,93% highest than the adult phantoms dose. The results obtained allow us to conclude that, for the three tomographers, the generation of images to the same diagnostic objective presents a higher dose in newborn phantoms compared to phantoms adult.