2Department of Electrical and Electronics, Nişantaşı University Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, İstanbul-Türkiye DOI : 10.5505/tjo.2023.4066 OBJECTIVE
The aim of this retrospective study was to experimentally estimate the embryo/fetal dose from nonconformal collimation computed tomography (CT) scans of pregnant women during thorax computed tomography (CCT) scans.
METHODS
The study involved 22 pregnant women who underwent CCT scans unintentionally during 2015?2022.
Embryo/fetal absorbed doses were calculated by FetDose V4 software and compared with experimental
measures using Alderson Rando Phantom and thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs).
RESULTS
The CCT of 6 patients (27%) showed the thorax region in the scanned area only; whereas 16 patients
(73%) exhibited a wider scan length involving the thorax and abdomen. The average embryo/fetal dose
was found to be 1.54±0.71 mGy for 6 patients who had only the thorax area in the CCT, whereas the mean
embryo/fetal dose of the 16 patients with thorax and abdomen CCT was calculated as 5.31±1.67 mGy.
CONCLUSION
As a result, non-conformal collimation was observed in the abdomen and thorax in CCT scans leading
to a relative increase in the embryo/fetal dose.