title: Does clinical indication play a role in CT radiation dose in pediatric patients?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to identify the main pathologies for which CT is applied on pediatric patients and the related radiation doses as reported in the literature in order to facilitate justification and CT optimization.
  
  
  METHODS
  A critical analysis of a literature review was performed. Different search engines were used such as PubMed, Google Scholar and Science Direct. Various terms and keywords were used to locate pertinent articles such as Pediatric, Computed tomography, Radiation Dose, Organ dose, Effective dose.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results showed that the main pathologies for which CT is applied are: Crohn's disease, hydrocephalus, cystic fibrosis and pediatric malignancies-mainly lymphoma. The related radiation dose data are extremely scarce and are in the range of 3.48-17.56, 0.2-15.3mSv, 0.14-6.20mSv, and 2.8-518.0mSv, respectively. The radiation doses reported are high especially in pediatric oncology.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Pediatric patients with malignancies are those exposed to the higher levels of radiation during CT imaging. Literature is lacking reporting of dose in Pediatric CT imaging. More studies need to be realized for the determination of radiation dose in those patients. Special protocols need to be recommended in order to reduce the exposure of children in radiation.
authors.affiliation: Konstantopoulio General Hospital-Agia Olga, Agias Olgas 3, Nea Ionia, 142 33 Athens, Greece. Electronic address: iro.trnt@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Sotiria
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Triantopoulou
authors.affiliation: Konstantopoulio General Hospital-Agia Olga, Agias Olgas 3, Nea Ionia, 142 33 Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Virginia
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Tsapaki
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D003424:Crohn Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D003550:Cystic Fibrosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D006849:Hydrocephalus / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
keywords: Computed tomography; Effective dose; Pediatric