Radiation dose reduction effectiveness of a male gonadal shield during 128-MDCT using Glass Detector

Abstract

Abstract When abdomen and pelvic were scanned with 128 channel MDCT, the gonadal exposure dose was measured with and without gonadal shield and the obtained images were evaluated. As a result, during abdominal MDCT scan, the gonadal exposure dose was measured 16.5±0.5 mGy when the gonad shield was not used, and it was 7.5±0.3 mGy when the large gonad shield(650 m 2 ) was used, which showed the effect of reduction in the gonadal exposure dose by 54%. During pelvic MDCT scan, the gonadal exposure dose was 9.5±0.3 mGy when the gonad shield was not used, and it was 2.8±0.2 mGy when the large gonard shield(650 m 2 ) was used, which showed the effect of reduction in the gonadal exposure dose by 70%. The images were obtained when using the gonad shield and when not using it during MDCT scan, and as a result of analyzing them with 5-point Likert scale, in the abdominal image, it was 4.1 points irrespective of whether using the gonad shield or not. And also, in pelvic scan, it was 1.2 points when the gonad shield was used, and 4.1 points when it was not used. With the results above, it is considered that during the abdominal 128-MDCT scan, by using the gonad shield, the images should be obtained without being degraded and the exposure dose must be reduced.