Study of displayed radiation dose and size-specific dose estimate from computed tomography brain examinations in accordance to head sizes

doi:10.4329/wjr.v18.i4.119450

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Apr 28, 2026 (publication date) through Apr 24, 2026

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World Journal of Radiology

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Copyright: ©Author(s) 2026. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. No commercial re-use. See permissions. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc.

World J Radiol. Apr 28, 2026; 18(4): 119450
Published online Apr 28, 2026. doi: 10.4329/wjr.v18.i4.119450

Study of displayed radiation dose and size-specific dose estimate from computed tomography brain examinations in accordance to head sizes

Anushka Chauhan, Sugandhi Sharma, Atul Mishra, Anurag Pathak, Kailash Kumar Mittal

Anushka Chauhan, Department of Radiological and Imaging Techniques, Faculty of Paramedical Sciences, Uttar Pradesh University of Medical Sciences, Etawah 206130, Uttar Pradesh, India

Sugandhi Sharma, Department of Community Medicine, Uttar Pradesh University of Medical Sciences, Etawah 206130, Uttar Pradesh, India

Atul Mishra, Kailash Kumar Mittal, Department of Radiation Oncology, Uttar Pradesh University of Medical Sciences, Etawah 206130, Uttar Pradesh, India

Anurag Pathak, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Community Health Centre Payagpur, Bahraich 271871, Uttar Pradesh, India

Author contributions: Chauhan A led the study, ensured compliance with guidelines, coordinated the research team, and oversaw documentation; Mishra A provided expertise in medical physics and radiation safety, guided dose estimation and clinical interpretation, and supported research dissemination; Sharma S and Pathak A performed the research analyses and analyzed the data; Mishra A and Mittal KK contributed to editorial revisions; Mishra A read and approved the final manuscript; Chauhan A, Sharma S, Mishra A, Anurag A, and Mittal KK approved the final version of the manuscript.

Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee of Uttar Pradesh University of Medical Sciences, No. 232/2024-25.

Informed consent statement: All study participants, and their attendants, provided written consent prior to study enrollment.

Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.

CONSORT 2010 statement: The authors have read the CONSORT 2010 statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CONSORT 2010 statement.

Data sharing statement: There is no additional data available.

Corresponding author: Atul Mishra, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, Uttar Pradesh University of Medical Sciences, Saifai, Etawah 206130, Uttar Pradesh, India. meetatulmishra@gmail.com

Received: January 28, 2026
Revised: February 11, 2026
Accepted: March 18, 2026
Published online: April 28, 2026
Processing time: 86 Days and 15.7 Hours

Abstract

BACKGROUND

This study is based on American Association of Physicist in Medicine (AAPM) task group (TG) report 204 to compare the displayed and calculated Radiation dose imparted to the patient in computed tomography (CT) head examination and the effective dose.

AIM

To identify whether there is a difference between displayed radiation doses and size-specific dose in CT head imaging. For ruling out the possibility of dose estimation difference.

METHODS

A prospective cross-sectional study was done on CT head examinations using multidetector CT. The study included subjects aged between 18 and 60 years with no obvious morphological head deformities. We compared the size-specific dose estimate (SSDE) displayed and calculated where we used f factor for effective diameter from AAPM report 204 and manually calculated the SSDE for comparison. We also calculated the effective dose for head CT manually using dose-length product and k value from AAPM report 96.

RESULTS

The difference between SSDE Calculated and displayed was found to be -11.99%, the negative value depicts that the SSDE displayed in the patient dose chart in CT is much lower than the calculated SSDE. Hence it highly underestimates the dose received by the patient and further cancer risk estimation. We also found that the radiation dose received by patient is inversely related to the effective diameter of their head.

CONCLUSION

The observed difference between the calculated and displayed dose values falls within the acceptable range of 10%-20% as recommended by the AAPM TG report 204, indicating consistency with established guidelines.

Keywords: Radiation protection; Multidetector computed tomography; Head; Organ size; Radiation exposure; Diagnostic imaging

Core Tip: Since radiation can cause various effects in humans whether it is somatic or genetic, this study aims to determine whether there are any differences in the displayed and calculated radiation dose in case of head computed tomography (CT). To rule out the probability of under or over estimation of radiation dose for the same, as it is essential for radiation to be within the acceptable limits to prevent risk of cancer and other stochastic and deterministic effects. In our study we found that the size specific dose estimate is severely underestimated in the patient dose chart. This indicates the patient is exposed to much greater radiation than estimated so, there is a need for maintaining lowest possible dose criteria for scanning to prevent any probability of radiation induced effects in the patient. Study of this type has not been done in this area and provides impactful insights on the dose underestimation in head CT.