Radiation Dose and Image Quality Evaluation in Paediatric Radiography

A.P. Ladia, S.G. Skiadopoulos, C.P. Kalogeropoulou, P.E. Zampakis, G.G. Dimitriou ,G.S. Panayiotakis

Chest and abdomen radiographs are the most common examinations in paediatric radiology. It is important to ensure that patient radiation dose is kept to low level without image quality degradation. In this work, the effective dose, risk and image quality were assessed in chest and abdomen radiography. Eighty children (40 boys, 40 girls) participated in the study and they were categorized in four age groups, according to their anatomical characteristics. The dose and risk were estimated utilizing the PCXMC 2.0 code. The image quality was assessed by two radiologists based on image features provided by the CEC guidelines.   The mean effective dose value was 13 μSv and 34.6 μSv for chest and abdomen, respectively. The risk was slightly higher in the case of 1 y age group. Image quality values were similar for all age groups, with a slight increase in chest radiographs compared to abdomen radiographs. Improved image quality values were obtained for the processed images, for both chest and abdomen radiographs.