Pediatric CT--the challenge of dose records

With an increasing professional and public awareness of the future risk associated with ionizing radiation in medical imaging has come a growing discussion of the need for improved dose records. The increased radio-sensitivity of children and the greater number of years in their future makes this of particular relevance in pediatric practice. Personal dose logs, institutional records and national dose registries or databases should all play a part in efforts to improve dose records. We present points for discussion and a few initial projects to demonstrate the potential benefits and challenges of creating dose records. The emphasis of this manuscript is on CT dose records.