EPI-CT: design, challenges and epidemiological methods of an international study on cancer risk after paediatric and young adult CT

Computed tomography (CT) has great clinical utility and its usage has increased dramatically over the years. Concerns have been raised, however, about health impacts of ionising radiation exposure from CTs, particularly in children, who have a higher risk for some radiation induced diseases. Direct estimation of the health impact of these exposures is needed, but the conduct of epidemiological studies of paediatric CT populations poses a number of challenges which, if not addressed, could invalidate the results. The aim of the present paper is to review the main challenges of a study on the health impact of paediatric CTs and how the protocol of the European collaborative study EPI-CT, coor…