title: Estimating radiation effective doses from whole body computed tomography scans based on U.S. soldier patient height and weight.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The purpose of this study is to explore how a patient's height and weight can be used to predict the effective dose to a reference phantom with similar height and weight from a chest abdomen pelvis computed tomography scan when machine-based parameters are unknown. Since machine-based scanning parameters can be misplaced or lost, a predictive model will enable the medical professional to quantify a patient's cumulative radiation dose.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred mathematical phantoms of varying heights and weights were defined within an x-ray Monte Carlo based software code in order to calculate organ absorbed doses and effective doses from a chest abdomen pelvis scan. Regression analysis was used to develop an effective dose predictive model. The regression model was experimentally verified using anthropomorphic phantoms and validated against a real patient population.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Estimates of the effective doses as calculated by the predictive model were within 10% of the estimates of the effective doses using experimentally measured absorbed doses within the anthropomorphic phantoms. Comparisons of the patient population effective doses show that the predictive model is within 33% of current methods of estimating effective dose using machine-based parameters.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A patient's height and weight can be used to estimate the effective dose from a chest abdomen pelvis computed tomography scan. The presented predictive model can be used interchangeably with current effective dose estimating techniques that rely on computed tomography machine-based techniques.
authors: Department of Medical Physics, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Ave, New York, NY 10021, USA. robert.prins@us.army.mil
authors: Robert D
authors: RD
authors: Prins
authors: Raymond H
authors: RH
authors: Thornton
authors: C Ross
authors: CR
authors: Schmidtlein
authors: Brian
authors: B
authors: Quinn
authors: Hung
authors: H
authors: Ching
authors: Lawrence T
authors: LT
authors: Dauer
mesh_terms: D001827:Body Height; D001835:Body Weight; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008889:Military Personnel; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011860:Radiography, Abdominal; D013902:Radiography, Thoracic; D012044:Regression Analysis; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014481:United States