Computed tomography (CT) is an essential tool in modern medicine and is frequently used to diagnose a wide range of conditions, particularly in industrial countries, such as Japan and Germany. However, markedly higher doses of ionizing radiation are delivered during CT imaging than during conventional X-ray examinations. To assess pediatric CT practice patterns, data from three university hospital databases (two in Japan and one in Germany) were analyzed. Anonymized data for patients aged 0 to 14 years who had undergone CT examinations between 2008 and 2010 were extracted. To assess CT practice, an interdisciplinary classification scheme for CT indications, which incorporated the most common examination types and radiosensitive tissues, was developed. The frequency of CT examinations was determined according to sex, age at examination, and indications. A total of 5182 CT examinations were performed in 2955 children. Overall, the frequency of CT examinations at the Japanese university hospitals did not differ significantly from that at the German hospital. However, differences were detected in the age distribution of the patients who underwent CT examinations (the proportion of patients ?5 years of age was significantly higher in Japan than in Germany) and in the indications for CT. Substantial practice differences regarding the use of CT in pediatric health care were detected between the three hospitals. The results of this study point towards a need for approaches such as clinical guidelines to reduce unwarranted medical radiation exposures, particularly abdominal and head CT, in the Japanese health system.
雑誌名
Journal of Radiation Research
巻
58
号
1
ページ
135 - 141
発行年
2017-01-23
出版者
日本放射線影響学会
出版者別言語
Japanese Radiation Research Society
ISSN
04493060
EISSN
13499157
DOI
10.1093/jrr/rrw074
権利
c The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Japan Radiation Research Society and Japanese Society for Radiation Oncology.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
著者版フラグ
publisher
引用
Journal of Radiation Research, 58(1), pp.135-141; 2017
Pediatric computed tomography practice in Japanese university hospitals from 2008?2010: did it differ from German practice?
JRR58_135.pdf
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