A PROJECT TO DESIGN A SOFTWARE PACKAGE FOR REPORTING MULTIDETECTOR CT (MDCT) DOSES

Computed tomography (CT) has established itself as one of the most significant diagnostic technologies. The advent of the multidetector CT (MDCT) has made it possible to capture images to create 4D motion images for cardiac and respiratory diseases. As its usage grows, more concerns about the potential radiation risk to patients associated with various CT scanning protocols have raised from the medical imaging community and patients. This paper describes the effort to develop a modern software package to estimate and report the organ dose and effective dose values for patients undergoing the CT examinations. Original dose data were derived from a large number of Monte Carlo (MC) simulations based both on the ICRP 60 and ICRP 103 tissueweighting coefficient using MCNPX v2.5, involving detailed CT scanner models and anatomically realistic phantoms. Detailed CT scanner X-ray sources and protocols are considered in the Monte Carlo simulations. Several of CT scanner series and different operated tube voltage have been taken into consideration. The RPI Pregnant Women (RPI-P3, -P6 and -P9) and RPI Adult Male (RPI-AM) and Adult Female (RPI-AF) are utilized as the phantom models. The software is being developed using the Visual C#.NET platform with a graphical user interface (GUI) designed to allow a user to specify the patient type, body scan region, and scanner operating parameters. Using the object-oriented programming technology, 3D phantoms are displayed interactively to improve the user interaction with software functions. The organ dose and effective dose are rapidly archived and reported in the software according to the user-specified protocols.