Dedicated CT technique for scanning neonates

Two 10-cm-diameter phantoms were made to simulate newborn babies undergoing computed tomographic scanning. The image-evaluation phantom was used for comparison of spatial and contrast resolution between an adult and a neonate. It was found that the establishment of a dedicated machine setting for imaging of the newborn is of utmost importance for obtaining acceptable image quality. With the dose-determination phantom, the dose measured at the same machine settings was found to be 30% higher to the infant than to the adult. Contrary to popular belief, the measurements showed that, for the same setting of the milliampereseconds (mAs), the small phantom received a higher radiation dose than the large phantom. Therefore, clinically, the same mAs setting delivers a higher dose to an infant than to an adult because of the infant's smaller size.