Radiation Dose Metrics in CT: Assessing Dose Using the National Quality Forum CT Patient Safety Measure

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• 作者：Jillian Keegan ; BS^a ; Diana L. Miglioretti ; PhD^b ; Robert Gould ; ScD^a ; Lane F. Donnelly ; MD^c ; Nicole D. Wilson ; MPH^a ; Rebecca Smith-Bindman ; MD^a ; ^d ; ^e ; ^{Nicole.Wilson@ucsf.edu" class="auth_mail}
• 关键词：CT ; dose metrics ; radiation ; quality improvement
• 刊名：Journal of the American College of Radiology
• 出版年：March, 2014
• 年：2014
• 卷：11
• 期：3
• 页码：309-315
• 全文大小：635 K

文摘

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Purpose

The National Quality Forum (NQF) is a nonprofit consensus organization that recently endorsed a measure focused on CT radiation doses. To comply, facilities must summarize the doses from consecutive scans within age and anatomic area strata and report the data in the medical record. Our purpose was to assess the time needed to assemble the data and to demonstrate how review of such data permits a facility to understand doses.

Methods and Materials

To assemble the data we used for analysis, we used the dose monitoring software聽eXposure to automatically export dose metrics from consecutive scans in 2010 and 2012. For a subset of 50聽exams, we also collected dose metrics manually, copying data directly from the PACS into an excel spreadsheet.

Results

Manual data collection for 50 scans required 2 hours and 15 minutes. eXposure compiled the data in under an hour. All dose metrics demonstrated a 30% to 50% reduction between 2010 and 2012. There was also a significant decline and a reduction in the variability of the doses over time.

Conclusion

The NQF measure facilitates an institution's capacity to assess the doses they are using for CT as part of routine practice. The necessary data can be collected within a reasonable amount of time either with automatic software or manually. The collection and review of these data will allow facilities to compare their radiation dose distributions with national distributions and allow assessment of temporal trends in the doses they are using.