Estimation of Effective Doses in Head CT Based on RPLGD In-Phantom Measurements

In order to test the applicability of radiophotoluminescent glass dosimeter (RPLGD) in mimic measurements of patient dose from CT head examinations, the radiophotoluminescent glass dosimeters were set into various tissues or organs of an anthropomorphic phantom, and the head of the phantom was scanned under normally used conditions. Based on the readout values of RPLGDs, effective doses were calculated and compared with other values estimated from dose length product (DLP). Results show that patient doses evaluated by the two methods were generally consistent with each other. An averaged effective dose of 1.23 mSv from mimic measurements of the head examinations was also in general agreement with other reported values. This suggests RPLGD in-phantom method is practical for mimic measuring and evaluating patient doses from CT examinations.