The computed tomography dose index (CTDI) is a commonly used radiation exposure index in X-ray computed tomography, first defined in 1981. The CTDI can be used in conjunction with patient size to estimate the absorbed dose. The CTDI and absorbed dose may differ by more than a factor of two for small patients such as children.
Contents
Definitions
It is defined as the average dose imparted by a single axial acquisition to a standard 100 mm pencil chamber dosimeter inside a PMMA phantom over the width of 14 CT slices:
where
This measurement is most often made using a 100-mm standard pencil dose chamber as this is representative of a typical scan length:
The absorbed dose to water
The dose distribution imparted by a CT scan is much more homogeneous than that imparted by radiography, but is still somewhat larger near the skin than in the centre of the body. The weighted CTDI was introduced to account for this:
using measurements acquired at central and peripheral positions in the head or body phantoms described above.
CTDI in helical CT
In helical CT, the pitch of the machine - a factor of the speed at which the couch travels through the gantry and the tube rotation frequency - also impacts on patient dose. The pitch factor, P, is defined as
where
Similar measures with yet wider chambers are useful for CT systems with large numbers of detector rows.
CTDI can also be measured with polymer gel dosimetry.
Relation to DLP
The dose-length product (DLP) is a quantity defined for use in CT as
for