Indian Journal of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology

Although compute tomography (CT) scans have valuable medical benefits, their increased usage with low diagnostic yield in AL-HUSSIN EDUCATIONAL HOSPITAL in Iraq has raised concerns about the risk of contracting cancer. This study aims to investigate the proportion of justified and unjustified CT scans performed on young people aged under 35, according to NICE guidelines. Medical records for all computed tomography brain scans performed on young people aged under 35 during the period 1 April 2014 to 1 December 2014 at AL-HUSSIN EDUCATIONAL HOSPITAL were reviewed. NICE guidelines were retrospectively applied by two reviewers in order to identify the proportion of justified and unjustified head CT scans. Kappa test was employed to measure the agreement between the reviewers. Chi-square test was then used to compare the number of unjustified scans from the emergency and non-emergency department. Of the 287 head CT scans, 183 (64%) scans were justified and 104(36%) scans were unjustified according to the NICE guidelines. There was fair to substantial agreement between the reviewers (k= 8.99). The number of unjustified scans from the emergency department was greater than the number of unjustified scans from non-emergency department. This difference was significant (chi-square statistic = 7.959; p=0.005).