THURSDAY, July 2 (HealthDay News) -- In pediatric patients, new computed tomography protocols based on clinical indications, patient weight, and number of prior studies may result in significant dose reduction and high compliance, according to a study published in the July issue of Radiology.

Sarabjeet Singh, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and colleagues retrospectively assessed new pediatric protocols in 692 examinations of 245 boys and 193 girls (mean age of 12.6 years), which were performed in three phases of incremental stepwise dose reduction over 17 months.

For pediatric chest and abdominal studies, the researchers found that the protocols were associated with radiation dose reductions of 16 to 89.5 percent. They observed that low radiation dose chest and abdominal computed tomography scans were associated with acceptable lesion conspicuity and diagnostic accuracy. They also showed that the protocols were associated with compliance rates of up to 88 percent.

"The color-coded pediatric body computed tomography protocols assessed in our study differ from those described in earlier studies, which primarily described patient size-specific protocols by using fixed tube current," the authors write. "The new protocols assessed in our study require special attention to the clinical indication, which is the main determinant of radiation dose for each patient."

The study was supported by GE Healthcare; two co-authors reported financial relationships with the company.

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