A comparison of radiation doses to the breast in computed tomographic chest examinations for two scanning protocols.

Compared with other radiological examinations in which the breasts are directly exposed, the breast doses involved in computed tomographic (CT) chest examinations are high. A CT protocol which reduces such breast dose has been investigated. Breast doses have been measured for contiguous 10 mm scans and interspaced 3 mm scans. Differences in the breast doses were found between the left and right breasts for both scanning protocols. The dose associated with the interspaced scans was lower by a factor of about two compared with that for the contiguous scans.