Evaluation of patient effective doses in CT urography, intravenous urography and renal scintigraphy

Imaging of the renal system is performed with different techniques depending mainly on clinical symptoms and signs. This study intended to evaluate patient effective doses undergoing renal scintigraphy (technetium-99m-diethylene-triamine-pentaacetic acid), computed tomography urography (CTU) and intravenous urography (IVU). A total of 60 patients were evaluated using Orbiter 37 Gamma camera single head, dual-slice CT scanner and conventional X-ray machine with computed radiography (CR) processing unit. Patients effective dose were estimated using the administered activity, DosCal software and dose length product value for renal scan, IVU and CTU procedures, respectively. Patients' effective doses during renal scan, CTU and IVU procedures were 0.78 ± 0.18, 2.53 ± 0.94 and 1.81 ± 0.20 mSv, in that order. Patients were exposed to a higher effective dose during CTU compared with other two procedures. Patient doses depend on the size of patient, the type of scanner and the imaging protocol used. Effective doses considered low compared with previous studies.