Optimization of Chest Ct Radiation Dose in Patients With Covid-۱۹ Pneumonia

Coronavirus (Covid-۱۹), first reported in Wuhan, China, in December ۲۰۱۹, rapidly involved different communities and countries. CT scan is the gold standard imaging modality to detect the lungs’ involvement with the coronavirus. Due to the high sensitivity, wide availability, and short time to receive the results, demand for chest CT in the diagnosis of Covid-۱۹ pneumonia has increased, especially when the patient needs to be exposed to radiation several times for follow-up which increases the cancer risk . Therefore, optimizing the patients’ radiation dose while maintaining image quality is essential. This study aimed to review the papers related to the optimization of chest CT radiation dose in patients with Covid-۱۹ pneumonia. For this purpose, the articles in PubMed, Google Scholar, and AltaVista search engines were searched with the keywords "Covid-۱۹", "optimization", "radiation dose", and "chest CT". Then the relevant papers were analyzed. Based on the findings, various factors affect the chest CT radiation dose and the quality of the CT images including kVp, mAs, pitch, and iterative algorithm . Using the low-dose and ultra-low-dose CT protocols instead of conventional scans can reduce the radiation dose of the patients. The results of one study showed that the low-dose CT protocol reduced the effective dose from ۱.۸۰۷۴ mSv in the conventional CT protocol to ۰.۲۰۳ mSv, and the images had excellent quality in the diagnosis of Covid-۱۹ pneumonia. In another study, it was shown that the radiation dose was reduced from ۷ mSv in the conventional chest CT scan protocol to ۱-۱.۵ and ۰.۳ mSv in the low-dose CT and ultra-low-dose CT protocols, respectively. Optimizing chest CT radiation dose in Covid-۱۹ patients and using low-dose and ultra-low-dose CT protocols significantly reduce the patient dose while maintaining the image quality.

کلیدواژه ها:

Covid-۱۹ ، optimization ، radiation dose ، chest CT