title: CT equipment and performance issues: radiation protection 162.
abstract: Since the development of the CT scanner in the early 1970s, CT scanner technology has continuously developed through technical advancement, faster computer processing, superior detectors and helical and multi-detector scanning modes. As a result, the scope of clinical examinations has broadened considerably, and in parallel, this has been achieved with improvement in image quality and radiation dose efficiency. Despite this, and perhaps because image quality can always be improved at the expense of increased radiation dose, CT examinations are among the highest-dose procedures encountered routinely in medical imaging. The qualitative criteria for acceptability in RP 162 address some functional and operational issues, and the quantitative criteria, in the form of suspension levels, focus primarily around hardware aspects of the CT scanner, though consideration is also given to software, operator aspects and selection of scan protocols. Some of the specific aspects and challenges in modern CT systems, in particular multi-slice and wide beams are also addressed.
authors.affiliation: ImPACT, Medical Physics Department, St George's Hospital, London SW17 0QT, UK. sue.edyvean@gmail.com
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Edyvean
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation; D006801:Humans; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011832:Radiation Injuries / Q000517:prevention & control; D011835:Radiation Protection / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D015898:Tomography Scanners, X-Ray Computed / Q000592:standards; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards