Computed tomography radiation dose: Multi-slice versus single slice

The aim of this study is to investigate the radiation dose for spiral computed tomography and conventional CT during different CT examination. CT dose index with an active length of 10 cm pencil-shaped ionization chamber and a PMMA phantoms which recommended by American Association of Physicists in Medicine were used to measure the radiation dose. The weighted CT dose index, CTDIw, and dose-length product, DLP, were used as reference dose quantity in CT. The total effective doses of conventional CT scanners were compared with those of Spiral CT by the CTdosimetry software. The total effective doses of 16-slices spiral CT thorax and abdominal examinations were 300% lower when compared with 4-slices spiral CT and traditional single-slice CT. The typical head examination doses of multi-slices CT and single-slice CT were all within experiment deviation errors. The results showed that the multi-slices computed tomography system was substantial reduction in exam time, provided excellent image quality and decreased dose relative to the single-slice.