Monitoring radiation doses on children should not be overlooked. One recent study measured the dosage for infants undergoing full-body digital testing.

Two units—a Shimadzu radiography unit and a Lodox Statscan—were utilized.

The Shimadzu unit is a conventional radiography unit. The Lodox Statscan is a linear slit scanner. In general, the effective doses measured from the Statscan unit were considerably lower than those measured on the Shimadzu unit at both hospitals where testing occurred.

These results correlated with prior studies, however, the exception was the effective doses from the chest scans on the Statscan unit, which were not lower than in other studies.

The effective doses on the Statscan unit for the AP abdomen and AP pelvis exams were considerably lower than the results in most of the other studies. In particular, the effective doses for the standard trauma imaging protocol were less than half the dose from the Shimadzu unit.

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In conclusion, the doses for most of the standard radiographic examinations were considerably lower than those from the computer radiography system.

It is clear that radiation safety, particularly in children, is always being advanced.

With new technology such as the Statscan, more options are becoming available, although cost and availability will surely limit its widespread use for some time to come.

Author: Basil Hubbi, MD
Reference: Maree GJ, Iriving BJ, Hering ER. Paediatric Dose Measurement in a Full-Body Digital Radiography Unit. Pediatr Radiol 2007; 37 (October): 990–997.