200 S . M . Kabeer et al .: Radioprotection 2024 , 59 ( 3 ), 197 – 202
Table 3 . A comparison between DRLs of some countries and the median value of this study Region / Country * Brain Chest Abdomen-Pelvis
CTDI vol DLP CTDI vol DLP CTDI vol DLP
References
Japan , 2020 |
77.0 |
1350 |
13.0 |
510 |
18.0 |
880 |
( Abe et al ., 2020 ) |
United Kingdom , 2019 |
60.0 |
970 |
12.0 |
350 |
15.0 |
745 |
( Salama et al ., 2017 ) |
Canada , 2016 |
79.1 |
1302 |
14.1 |
521 |
18.1 |
874 |
( Wardlaw , 2016 ) |
Australia , 2019 |
52.0 |
880 |
10.0 |
390 |
13.0 |
566 |
( Lee et al ., 2020 ) |
United states , 2017 |
57.0 |
1011 |
15.4 |
566 |
19.4 |
998 |
( Damilakis and Vassileva , 2021 ) |
France , 2019 |
38.1 |
753 |
5.8 |
203 |
6.5 |
333 |
( Habib Geryes et al ., 2019 ) |
Malaysia , 2013 |
46.8 |
1050 |
19.9 |
600 |
14.5 |
637 |
( Karim et al ., 2016a ) |
Egypt , 2017 |
30.0 |
1360 |
22.0 |
420 |
31.0 |
1325 |
( Salama et al ., 2017 ) |
Nigeria , 2018 |
61.0 |
1310 |
17.0 |
735 |
20.0 |
1486 |
( Ekpo et al ., 2018 ) |
Kenya , 2018 |
61.0 |
1612 |
19.0 |
895 |
20.0 |
1842 |
( Ekpo et al ., 2018 ) |
India , 2014 |
32.0 |
925 |
12.0 |
456 |
16.0 |
482 |
( Saravanakumar et al ., 2014 ) |
This study |
48.2 |
1057 |
9.4 |
372 |
12.3 |
647 |
|
100
CTDI vol Percentage difference (%)
50
0
-50
UK Canada Australia US Japan Malaysia Egypt Nigeria Kenya India France
-100 Brain Chest Abd-pelvis
Fig . 1 . A comparison percentage between CTDI vol DRLs of some countries with the current median .
as India , Kenya , Egypt , France and Nigeria , the disparities are considerably higher than those in our study , except for India .
Our study found that the median CTDI vol value in abdominal-pelvic CT examinations closely matched the Diagnostic Reference Level ( DRL ) established in Australia . Furthermore , Malaysia had the highest CTDI vol value for abdomen-pelvis scans at 14.5 mGy , while the United States reported a CTDI vol of 19.4 mGy and Canada had 18.1 mGy . Australia recorded the lowest CTDI vol value at 13.0 mGy , and our study reported a CTDI vol of 12.3 mGy . When compared to values from some countries such as Kenya , India , Egypt , and Nigeria as in Table 3 , it is evident that the mean CTDI vol value differs significantly especially in France .
Analysis of the data presented in Figure 1 reveals noteworthy findings . The study reveals a minimal percentage difference in CTDI vol compared to Australia , suggesting a significant similarity in values . Moreover , the percentage variance in CTDIvol values in the UK is moderately low in comparison to several other countries . Notably , the UK , Canada , US , Japan , Nigeria , and Kenya exhibit an overall rise in CTDI vol across various CT scan types ( brain , chest , abdomen-pelvis ). Particularly , Canada demonstrates a substantial increase in brain CT scans ( 39.1 %), while the US shows a significant rise in chest CT scans ( 38.7 %). In contrast to France , there is an increase in CTDI vol for brain scans ( 20.7 %), while chest scans show a significant decrease (– 62 %) and abdomen-pelvis scans exhibit a marked reduction (– 89.2 %). The substantial decrease , particularly in abdomen-pelvis scans , may suggest the adoption of intensive dose reduction approaches , potentially impacting image quality or reflecting the integration of advanced imaging technology .
In contrast , DLP appears to be heavily dependent on the scan range as shown Figure 2 . France demonstrates the most significant decrease in DLP for brain CT scans , with a negative percentage difference of �40.3 %, indicating a notable reduction compared to the baseline . Conversely , Nigeria and