Won Tristan, Lee Ae-Kyoung, Choi Hyung-do, Lee Choonsik
Winston Churchill High School, Potomac, MD 20854.
Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, Daejeon, South Korea.
J Radiat Prot Res. 2021 Sep;46(3):98-105. doi: 10.14407/jrpr.2021.00010. Epub 2021 Jul 24.
In recent events of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, CT scans are being globally used as a complement to the reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests. It will be important to be aware of major organ dose levels, which are more relevant quantity to derive potential long-term adverse effect, for Korean pediatric and adult patients undergoing CT for COVID-19.
We calculated organ dose conversion coefficients for Korean pediatric and adult CT patients directly from Korean pediatric and adult computational phantoms combined with Monte Carlo radiation transport techniques. We then estimated major organ doses delivered to the Korean child and adult patients undergoing CT for COVID-19 combining the dose conversion coefficients and the international survey data. We also compared our Korean dose conversion coefficients with those from Caucasian reference pediatric and adult phantoms.
Based on the dose conversion coefficients we established in this study and the international survey data of COVID-19-related CT scans, we found that Korean 7-year-old child and adult males may receive about 4 - 32 mGy and 3 - 21 mGy of lung dose, respectively. We learned that the lung dose conversion coefficient for the Korean child phantom was up to 1.5-fold greater than that for the Korean adult phantom. We also found no substantial difference in dose conversion coefficients between Korean and Caucasian phantoms.
We estimated radiation dose delivered to the Korean child and adult phantoms undergoing COVID-19-related CT examinations. The dose conversion coefficients derived for different CT scan types can be also used universally for other dosimetry studies concerning Korean CT scans. We also confirmed that the Caucasian-based CT organ dose calculation tools may be used for the Korean population with reasonable accuracy.
在2019年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行的近期事件中，CT扫描在全球范围内被用作逆转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）检测的补充手段。对于接受COVID-19相关CT检查的韩国儿童和成人患者，了解主要器官的剂量水平非常重要，因为这是推导潜在长期不良影响的更相关的量。
我们结合蒙特卡洛辐射传输技术，直接从韩国儿童和成人计算体模中计算出韩国儿童和成人CT患者的器官剂量转换系数。然后，我们结合剂量转换系数和国际调查数据，估算了接受COVID-19相关CT检查的韩国儿童和成人患者的主要器官剂量。我们还将我们的韩国剂量转换系数与白种人参考儿童和成人体模的系数进行了比较。
基于我们在本研究中建立的剂量转换系数以及COVID-19相关CT扫描的国际调查数据，我们发现韩国7岁儿童和成男性的肺部剂量可能分别约为4 - 32 mGy和3 - 21 mGy。我们了解到，韩国儿童体模的肺部剂量转换系数比韩国成人体模的高出1.5倍。我们还发现韩国和白种人体模之间的剂量转换系数没有实质性差异。
我们估算了接受COVID-19相关CT检查的韩国儿童和成人体模所接受的辐射剂量。为不同CT扫描类型推导的剂量转换系数也可普遍用于其他有关韩国CT扫描的剂量学研究。我们还证实，基于白种人的CT器官剂量计算工具可用于韩国人群，且具有合理的准确性。
