Evaluation of the technical specifications of computerized tomography scanners in Jazan

Abstract

Introduction : good quality management for computerized Tomography (CT) scanners is essential to safe and efficient CT units, providing quality clinical images, maintaining patient and staff radiation doses as low as reasonably achievable. Aims : to evaluate the technical specifications of (CT) scanners in Jazan region in the period from 2011-2013. Materials and Methods : 13 CT scanners have been evaluated; 2 of them are in private sectors and the rest in public hospitals. The Technical specifications of CT scanners were assessed using template issued by ImPACT (Imaging Performance Assessment of CT scanners). Results : When comparing the 11 public scanners age with guidelines rules of European Coordination Committee of the Radiological and Electro medical Industries (ECCREI); it showed that scanners of Jazan region are within lifecycle guidelines, the total cumulative number of scanners since 1984 to 2013 are 15 scanners, 4 of them were replaced and the rest under use, multi detector CT scanners replaced most of the single detector scanners. for public CT scanners ; results show that all of the scanners are 3 rd generation, gantry bores are arranged between70-80cm, the x-ray tube inventory showed that there is no dual source CT scanner in the region and the anode storage heat capacity ranged from (3-8MHU) except Siemens 64slices and 20slices reached up to (30MHU). All of scanners in the region are built in solid state, image reconstruction time display per second is ranged from 1-40slice/seconds, advance clinical application software are available among the scanners. Jazan region CT scanners have a high capability and their technical specifications are in a rapid pace in developments that impacting on performance which depends on trade-off between image quality and patient dose.