Quantification of current practice in pediatric roentgenography for organ dose calculations

Abstract

This report is a compilation of data on pediatric technique factors that allows the adaptation of the Monte Carlo dosimetry method to infants and children. A survey of five hospitals in the Baltimore-Washington area, and additional records from two large hospitals, have provided data on the relative frequencies and types of radiographic procedures perfomed on infants and children. The frequencies and types of radiographic procedures were determined for five age groups: birth to 6 months, 7 months to 18 months, 4 to 6 years, 9 to 11 years, and 14 to 16 years. Excluding examinations of the limbs, the procedures that constituted 1 percent or more of the cumulative total for an age group were investigated further. The projections usually associated with those examinations were determined and adapted to five reference child phantoms corresponding to the five survey age groups. For each projection, the x-ray beam quality, exposure geometry and field size, and location on the patient were simulated on the child phantoms, based on the survey data. In order to represent the variations seen in practice, most projection descriptions include two field sizes and three x-ray beam qualities.

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