Technology minimizes CT scan radiation exposure for obese patients

A study from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is the first to calculate exactly how much radiation obese patients receive from a CT scan. Head of the Nuclear Engineering Program, X. George Xu, created ‘phantoms’, an ultra-realistic 3-D computer models of overweight and obese people, and the software, VirtualDose, which aims to enable the creation of a personalized, ultra-realistic model of any patient undergoing a CT scan, taking into consideration a patient’s individual characteristics. These phantoms will allow physicians to compare the radiation doses a patient will get from different CT scanner settings and choose the most appropriate configuration, thus optimizing the CT scanning devices in such a way that minimizes patient’s radiation exposure. VirtualDose also keeps a highly accurate record of how much radiation patients are exposed to over their lifetime. Results of the study were published in the journal Physics in Medicine & Biology.