Diagnostic imaging and radiation exposure in inflammatory bowel disease

Table 1 Radiation doses from gastrointestinal imaging studies in comparison to background radiation, condensed from RadiologyInfo.org[9] and Mettler et al[10]

Imaging procedure	Average effective dose (mSv)	Time period for equivalent effective dose from natural background radiation1
Multiphase CT abdomen and pelvis	31	10.3 yr
PET/CT	25	8.3 yr
CT Abdomen and Pelvis	10	3.3 yr
CT Colonography	10	3.3 yr
CT Abdomen	8	2.7 yr
Barium Enema	8	2.7 yr
Small bowel follow-through	5	1.7 yr
X-ray abdomen	0.7	2.8 mo

¹Based on the assumption of an average effective dose of 3 mSv per year from natural background radiation. CT: Computed tomography; PET: Positron emission tomography.