No consistent guidelines exist for the acquisition of a CT scan as part of pediatric PET/CT. Given that children may be more vulnerable to the effects of ionizing radiation, it is necessary to develop methods that provide diagnostic-quality imaging when needed, in the shortest time and with the lowest patient radiation exposure. This article describes the basics of CT dosimetry and PET/CT acquisition in children. We describe the variability in pediatric PET/CT techniques, based on a survey of 19 PET/CT pediatric institutions in North America. The results of the survey demonstrated that, although most institutions used automatic tube current modulation, there remained a large variation of practice, on the order of a factor of 2-3, across sites, pointing to the need for guidelines. We introduce the approach developed at our institution for using a multiseries PET/CT acquisition technique that combines diagnostic-quality CT in the essential portion of the field of view and a low-dose technique to image the remainder of the body. This approach leads to a reduction in radiation dose to the patient while combining the PET and the diagnostic CT into a single acquisition. The standardization of pediatric PET/CT provides an opportunity for a reduction in the radiation dose to these patients while maintaining an appropriate level of diagnostic image quality.

中文翻译：

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儿科PET / CT的操作和剂量方面。

对于小儿PET / CT的一部分，获取CT扫描尚无一致的指导原则。鉴于儿童可能更容易受到电离辐射的影响，因此有必要开发出能够在需要时以最短的时间和最低的患者辐射暴露水平提供诊断质量成像的方法。本文介绍了儿童CT剂量测定和PET / CT采集的基础知识。我们根据对北美19家PET / CT儿科机构的调查，描述了儿科PET / CT技术的可变性。调查结果表明，尽管大多数机构使用了自动管电流调制，但是各个站点之间的实践仍然存在很大差异，约为2-3倍，这表明需要指南。我们介绍了在我们机构中开发的一种方法，该方法使用多系列PET / CT采集技术，该技术将视场基本部分的诊断质量CT与低剂量技术相结合，以对身体的其余部分进行成像。这种方法可以减少向患者的辐射剂量，同时将PET和诊断CT合并为一个采集。儿科PET / CT的标准化为减少这些患者的放射剂量提供了机会，同时又能保持适当水平的诊断图像质量。这种方法可以减少向患者的辐射剂量，同时将PET和诊断CT合并为一个采集。儿科PET / CT的标准化为减少这些患者的放射剂量提供了机会，同时又能保持适当水平的诊断图像质量。这种方法可以减少向患者的辐射剂量，同时将PET和诊断CT合并为一个单次采集。儿科PET / CT的标准化为减少这些患者的放射剂量提供了机会，同时又能保持适当水平的诊断图像质量。