[Breast dose reduction in female CT screening for lung cancer using various metallic shields]

We evaluated the effectiveness of metallic shields that were used for reduction of the breast dose in thoracic computed tomography(CT). For the evaluation, we measured breast surface dose and image standard deviation(SD)in the lung area. The metallic shields were made from bismuth, zinc, copper, and iron. The bismuth shield has been marketed and used for dose reduction. The other three metallic shields were chosen because they have lower atomic numbers and a lower yield of characteristic X-rays. As a result, use of the metallic shields showed a lower breast dose than the decrement of the tube current in the same image SD. The insertion of a thin aluminum sheet between the shield and a phantom was also effective in reducing breast surface dose. We calculated the dose reduction rate to evaluate the effectiveness of these metallic shields. This dose reduction rate was defined as the ratio of the decrease in breast surface dose by metallic shields to the breast surface dose measured with the tube current decrement in the same image SD. The maximum dose reduction rate was 6.4% for the bismuth shield, and 12.0-13.3% for the other shields. These results indicate that the shields made from zinc, copper, and iron are more effective for dose reduction than the shield made form bismuth. The best dose reduction rate, 13.3%, has been achieved when the zinc shield placed 20 mm apart from a phantom with 0.2 mm aluminum was used.