Estimation of patient dose with standard and low-dose MDCT fluoroscopy protocols for lung biopsy

Reduced Kilovoltage in Computed Tomography–Guided Intervention in a Community Hospital: Effect on the Radiation Dose

“…A list of all the patients who underwent clinically indicated CT-guided interventional procedures in the department of radiology in a busy community hospital was obtained from health records. Given the published evidence of the success of performing CT-guided biopsy at lower doses [7–10], we had previously switched our protocol to low dose (80 kV) whenever feasible. For the last 50 patients before we switched our protocol, all the procedures were conducted with the x-ray tube voltage set to the routine value of 120 kV.…”

“…Similarly, Smith et al [8] showed that reduction of the tube voltage to 100 kV with the fixed current of 15 mA resulted in a 95% reduction in radiation exposure during CT-guided percutaneous lung biopsies. Reducing the tube voltage further, to 80 kV, has been successfully reported in CT-guided periradicular injections in the lumbar spine [9] and in CT-guided lung biopsies [10]. To our knowledge, however, there are no reports of CT-guided interventions with reduced voltage protocols for all performed procedures.…”