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Educational Content: Reporting & Communications

2012

A RADIANCE-Based Alerting System for CT Radiation Dose Estimates (Login may be required)

With growing interest in radiation dose monitoring for computed tomography (CT) over the past few years, it is critical to review CT dose estimates on a regular basis to promote protocol optimization and investigate outlier dose estimates that exceed reasonable thresholds. These new hardware-level alerting features will be available on newer CT scanners, however, older equipment may not be updated. In this work, we present a real-time monitoring system for CT exams which uses data collected by RADIANCE, an open-source CT dose monitoring and reporting system.

Automated Body Size Extraction Using Axial CT Images to Calculate Water-Equivalent Diameter (Login may be required)

Knowledge of patient body habitus is necessary to size-adjust radiation dosimetry for computed tomography (CT). The purpose of this study was to validate an automated method to extract water-equivalent diameter from axial CT images in the enterprise image archive.

Automated Estimation of Abdominal Effective Diameter for Body Size Normalization of CT Dose (Login may be required)

Automated retrieval of CT dose information from PACS allows for detection of dose outliers for analysis and informed modification of imaging protocols. However, CT dose is currently reported in terms of scanner radiation output related to energy imparted to a reference phantom. In this report we describe a method for automated normalization of CT dose for body size, based on reconstructed axial CT images.

Extracting, Measuring, and Reporting Radiation Dose (Login may be required)

This session describes the how, what, and why of radiation dose reporting, from the informatics, medical physics, and patient caregiver perspectives. State laws requiring the reporting of radiation dose will be reviewed and progress described in implementing solutions using informatics tools. The value of using a dose index registry with data collection, analysis, and feedback will be shown.

Implementation of the ACR Dose Index Registry at Two Independent Sites at a Large Academic Institution: Trials and Tribulations (Login may be required)

A rising consciousness within both the medical community and in the public has been created by the current levels of radiation exposure from increased use of computed tomography. The concern has prompted the need for more data collection and analysis of hospital and imaging center exam doses. This has spurred the ACR to develop the Dose Index Registry (DIR).

Radiation Dose in the Clinical Environment: Benefit and Risk (Webinar)

Issues of radiation dose for medical procedures have been in the news over the past two years. General questions often asked are – What is dose? How accurate is the dose metric generated by CT scanners? What about optimized protocols and justification of procedures? Join Drs. Seibert and Smith-Bindman as they discuss efforts being made by institutions that are beginning to find answers and what needs to be done in the immediate future.

Using the Microsoft Kinect for Patient Size Estimation and Radiation Dose Normalization: Proof of Concept and Initial Validation (Login may be required)

Historically, whole-body effective dose has been estimated by multiplying the dose-length product (DLP) by the anatomy-specific conversion factor, or k factor, derived from tissue-specific weighting factors determined by the International Commission for Radiological Protection. There are many potential estimates of patient size; however, none of these measures effectively captures the size of the region of anatomy being imaged. To address this limitation, this abstract presents and validates a novel approach to estimating patient volume using the Microsoft Kinect, a combination RGB camera-infrared depth sensor device.