Abdominal CT (exposure to radiation)

Diagnostic examination effective doses (mSv)

• single x-ray
  • skull (PA and lateral) (0.04)
  • limb or joint (0.06)
  • chest (PA) (0.02), chest (lateral) (0.04)
  • abdomen (0.7)
    
    
• contrast examination, x-ray series or CT
  • cervical (0.27), thoracic (1.4), lumbar (1.8) series
  • intravenous urogram (2.5)
  • barium enema (7.0)
  • CT abdomen (10)

Notes:

• data reveal that the lumbar spine series has 90 times and a joint x-ray 3 times the radiation dose of a posteroanterior (PA) chest x-ray
  
  
• the average background annual absorbed dose in the UK is around 2.5 mSv (equivalent to 125 PA chest x-rays)
  
  
• an abdominal computerised tomography (CT) scan (500 frontal chest x-ray equivalents) in a teenager is thought to raise the lifetime risk of inducing haematological malignancy to 1 in 1000

Reference:

• 1) Arthritis Research UK (Summer 2013). Hands on - Musculoskeletal imaging for GPs.