Radiological Sciences, “La Sapienza” University, Rome
Introduction
An interesting study was published in the January 2008 issue of the
American Journal of Roentgenology (1). Conducted at
Duke University Medical Center, the study investigated a way to reduce radiation dose during MDCT
in the pediatric population. The issue, as already discussed in previous Hot Topics in MDCT.net, is
extremely important: for example, of the 57 million CT exams performed every year only in the
United States, 7.1 million involve the pediatric population. These numbers are extremely high,
considering that still not much is done to significantly reduce the radiation exposure. Radiation
dose should be of special concern in children, because the younger their age at exposure the
greater the potential for cancer development.
