Efficiency of tungsten-polymer composite shields on fetal dose reduction in chest CT scans

Given their desirable shielding properties, 5 polymer composite shields reinforced with tungsten were selected and their effects as gamma shields on fetal dose reduction were investigated. According to the results, the selected shields reduce the fetus brain, the fetus lungs, the fetus kidneys, and the total fetus dose almost 34.17%-41.19%, 20.47%-25.08%, 9.27%-12.13%, and 15.39%-18.69%, respectively, at tube voltage of 80 kVp. At the higher tube potentials, the values of dose reduction were smaller. Moreover, it was observed that polymers named PHEMA-WO₃ and RS-U-30 had an excellent shielding ability among the other studied composites.