Diagnostic radiation represents an indispensable, sometimes life-saving, tool in modern medicine. However. The growing use of computerized tomography (CT) is a topic of concern in radiological protection, especially for children and adolescents. Children are generally more sensitive to the carcinogenic effects of ionizing radiation than adults. In addition they have a longer life-span to express any effect and, because of their smaller mass, they may receive higher radiation doses from a CT scan than an adult.
A large-scale multinational collaborative stud will be set up with the objective of providing guidance towards optimisation of doses from paediatric CT scans. We have the following specific aims: 1) describe the pattern of use of CT in different countries and over time; 2) derive individual estimates of organ doses; 3) assess biological markers of CT-irradiation effects; 4) directly evaluate radiation-related risk of cancer following CT; and 5) characterize the quality of CT images in relation to the estimated doses in order to better inform CT imaging practice.