S . Semghouli et al .: Radioprotection 2024 , 59 ( 1 ), 42 – 49 47
Fig . 1 . Comparison of Moroccan DRL established at the 75th percentile of DLP with international values .
ionizing radiation . One of its missions is to establish national surveys on the doses administered to patients during the most common radiological examinations . However , AMSSNuR has not yet published data regarding NDRLs of radiological examinations in Morocco . Our dose survey proposal provides recommendations to radiation protection authorities and associated agencies that can be used to conduct national dose surveys for abdominopelvic CT scans in Moroccan hospitals . In view of rapid advancements in CT imaging technology , we recommend that AMSSNuR and hospitals update DRLs for CT procedures on a periodic basis to monitor radiation exposure during CT examinations in patients in Morocco .
5 Conclusion
The aim of this study was to evaluate radiation doses in adult patients undergoing abdominopelvic CT examination . The DRLs are proposed as NDRLs for this procedure and have been compared with those of other countries . This comparison identified an acceptable average DLP dose compared to other countries , since the Moroccan DLP was 10th among the 21 countries with the highest DLP values . The current study has some limitations : in particular , the data collected do not include a wide range of scanners available in Morocco , from 4 to 128 slices of CT technology , nor do they include all the country ’ s geographical regions . As such , data will be collected prospectively in future work to mitigate these limitations . However , the strength of this work is the availability of patient weight data ( BMI ) which ensures dose accuracy . Consequently , the results provide a national reference for CT doses for abdominopelvic CT examination . However , there is still a need to reduce and optimize radiation dose while maintaining good image quality for reliable diagnosis , and this can be achieved by enhancing radiographers ’ and radiologists ’ knowledge of radiation protection , protocol justification , as well as optimization through rigorous hospital radiation audits at national level .
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest in relation to this article .
Funding There was no funding from any source for this study .
Ethical approval
This study did not carry out activities that would require approval by a research ethics committee .