A recent retrospective study examined CT radiation doses in different types of facilities
Mean patient age: 12 years
Authors reviewed radiation doses for nearly 240,000 CT scans in over 500 facilities
The facilities were categorized into 4 groups:
1) academic pediatric,
2) non-academic pediatric,
3) academic adult,
4) non-academic adult
Most (65%) scans were performed at nonacademic adult centers
Radiation doses were significantly higher at adult facilities vs. pediatric facilities
Also, radiation doses were higher at non-academic vs. academic facilities
For example, the largest children received twice the radiation dose for abdomen-pelvis CT scans performed at nonacademic adult facilities compared with academic pediatric facilities
11.9 mGy vs. 5.8 mGy
Academic pediatric facilities use lower radiation doses than do nonacademic pediatric or adult facilities for all head CT examinations and for the majority of chest and abdomen-pelvis
References
Strauss et al., 2019. Radiation Dose for Pediatric CTT: Comparison of Pediatric versus Adult Imaging Facilities
