Assessing organ doses from paediatric CT scans--a novel approach for an epidemiology study (the EPI-CT study)

The increasing worldwide use of paediatric computed tomography (CT) has led to increasing concerns regarding the subsequent effects of exposure to radiation. In response to this concern, the international EPI-CT project was developed to study the risk of cancer in a large multi-country cohort. In radiation epidemiology, accurate estimates of organ-specific doses are essential. In EPI-CT, data collection is split into two time periods--before and after introduction of the Picture Archiving Communication System (PACS) introduced in the 1990s. Prior to PACS, only sparse information about scanner settings is available from radiology departments. Hence, a multi-level approach was developed to retrieve information from a questionnaire, surveys, scientific publications, and expert interviews. For the years after PACS was introduced, scanner settings will be extracted from Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) headers, a protocol for storing medical imaging data. Radiation fields and X-ray interactions within the body will be simulated using phantoms of various ages and Monte-Carlo-based radiation transport calculations. Individual organ doses will be estimated for each child using an accepted calculation strategy, scanner settings, and the radiation transport calculations. Comprehensive analyses of missing and uncertain dosimetry data will be conducted to provide uncertainty distributions of doses.