Estimating radiation effective doses from whole body computed tomography scans based on U.S. soldier patient height and weight

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.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.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.This research was driven by the need to estimate the radiation dose from computed tomography scans given to soldiers and civilians injured in austere environments. Nearly 50% of all injuries to United States Army soldiers in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom occurred in the head/neck, abdomen, and thorax region of the body [1,2]. Injuries in these regions are most commonly assessed using diagnostic x-ray scanning modalities such as computed tomography (CT). Current CT machines are able to scan an entire body in as little as 30 seconds making them particularly advantageous for diagnosing the extent of injuries sustained in traumatic events [3]. As a result, CT scanning is an integral part of the medical treatment schema from patient initial diagnosis through rehabilitation. In fact, because of this, CT scanning usage has steadily increased since its inception