Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Nov 6.
Published in final edited form as: Arch Intern Med. 2009 Dec 14;169(22):2078–2086. doi: 10.1001/archinternmed.2009.427

Table 2.

Median effective radiation dose for each type of CT study

Anatomic Area Type of CT Study CT Effective dose
(mSv)
Conventional Radiographs
Resulting in Equivalent Dose

Median Interquartile
Range
Absolute Range
[Min, Max]
Chest X-ray
Series
Mammography
Series


Head and Neck Routine Head 2.1 1.8 2.8 [0.27,5.8] 30 5
Routine Neck 3.9 2.6 5.6 [0.72, 8.8] 55 9
Suspected Stroke 14 9.4 20 [4.1, 56] 199 33

Chest Routine Chest, no contrast 8.2 5.1 11 [1.7, 24] 117 20
Routine Chest, with contrast 8.3 4.9 12 [1.6, 19] 119 20
Suspected Pulmonary Embolism 9.6 7.0 14 [2.3, 30] 137 23
Coronary Angiogram 22 14 24 [6.5, 39] 309 51

Abdomen - Pelvis Routine Abdomen-Pelvis, no contrast 15 10 20 [2.9, 43] 220 37
Routine Abdomen-Pelvis, with contrast 16 11 20 [4.0, 45] 234 39
Multiphase Abdomen-Pelvis 31 21 43 [6.4, 90] 442 74
Suspected Aneurysm or Dissection 24 20 37 [4.1, 68] 347 58