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ALARA Concept for MDCT Optimization: What is Reasonable, What is Achievable?

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Radiation Dose from Multidetector CT

Part of the book series: Medical Radiology ((Med Radiol Diagn Imaging))

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Abstract

Almost all MDCT scanners are installed with default parameters providing a perfect image quality called “standard”, and deliver the corresponding “standard dose”. Optimization is a process by which a substantial proportion of the standard dose is eliminated without loss in diagnostic performance and/or confidence. The final “optimized dose” reached by this process is not clearly defined in the literature because it varies among manufacturers, scanner generation, and CT users. The ALARA principle implies setting the optimized dose at the lowest reasonable level. In this chapter, we describe possible methods for optimization and propose achievable and reasonable limits for CT scanning of the head, the chest, the abdomen, and the spine.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, RHMS Clinique Louis Caty, Rue Louis Caty 136, 7331, Baudour, Belgium

    Denis Tack

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  1. Denis Tack
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Correspondence to Denis Tack .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Department of Radiology, Reseau Hospitaller de Medecine Sociale, Baudour, Belgium

    Denis Tack

  2. Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Fruit St. 55, Boston, 02114, Massachusetts, USA

    Mannudeep K. Kalra

  3. Hôspital Erasme, Department of Radiology, Université libre de Bruxelles, Route de Lennik 808, Brussels, 1070, Belgium

    Pierre Alain Gevenois

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© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Tack, D. (2011). ALARA Concept for MDCT Optimization: What is Reasonable, What is Achievable?. In: Tack, D., Kalra, M., Gevenois, P. (eds) Radiation Dose from Multidetector CT. Medical Radiology(). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/174_2011_458

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/174_2011_458

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-24534-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-24535-0

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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