Radiation dose in computed tomography of the chest

Since the beginning of the eighties, computed tomography (CT) has been more and more widely used as this technique provides precise anatomical details on the lungs, the mediastinum, and the chest wall. However, CT requires the use of ionizing radiations. The collective radiation from CT is therefore in constant increase. As evaluated on atomic bomb survivors, ionizing radiations increase the mortality by cancer. The risk is proportional to the dose and the dose related to CT is much higher than that related to a chest radiograph, both being in the field "of low-level radiations" a range of radiation dose from which no increase in cancer mortality could be demonstrated. This article outlines the risk estimation in the field of low-level radiations, the various methods to measure and estimate the radiation dose, the CT parameters influencing the radiation dose, dose comparisons between CT and most other imaging techniques of the chest, the newly developed so called "Low-Dose" CT techniques and highlights some of the unresolved questions related to radiation dose in clinical CT practice.