It is the radiographer's legal duty to strive for optimisation[1]. Optimisation can be enhanced by using additional beam filtration to reduce the dose burden in projection radiography, particularly for paediatric patients [2]. Analysis of literature reveals that beam filtration settings in digital radiography for paediatric patients are well researched experimentally [2-4]. However, while the dose reducing benefits of beam filtration are acknowledged in literature [5-6], there is less published evidence concerning whether beam filtration is either fully understood or widely applied in radiology departments. The...

Following ethical review and approval of the research proposal, an online questionnaire was administered to 22 imaging departments across Ireland which have a reasonable paediatric caseload. These 22 clinical sites (Table 1) are considered to be the focus of future development of paediatric services in Ireland [7].The hospitals included three tertiary referral paediatric hospitals, three neonatal hospitals and a range of general hospitals of varying size. The questionnaire sought details of overall departmental practice and therefore one appropriate radiographer from each site could answer on...

The high response rate (81%) permits generalisation of some but not all results to paediatric practice nationwide. Radiographers indicate that in theory they are aware of the dose reducing benefits of beam filtration for paediatric patients (Table 2), reassuring that the basic principles of beam filtration are understood. However, a distinct lack of knowledge concerning the appropriate beam filtration that is applied practically was also evident from survey responses. Only five X-ray rooms were reported to have 2-3mm Al equivalent total filtration, although the IEC...

The current study was undertaken to establish whether and how filtration is applied in paediatric radiography and what influences decisions about such beam filtration. Without doubt, a need for improvement in paediatric radiography regarding beam filtration in Ireland. Since total filtration below the legal minimum of 2.5mm Al equivalent is reported by respondents further investigation is recommended to ensure that the safe minimum level of filtration of 2.5 mm Al equivalence is consistently applied across all departments that image paediatric patients. However, given the rigorous...

Aisling Maguire, Radiography and Diagnostic Imaging, University College Dublin, Ireland Kate Matthews Radiography and Diagnostic Imaging, University College Dublin, Ireland Conflicts of interest: none Financial support: none

1.S.I. No. 478/2002 – European Communities (Medical Ionising Radiation Protection) Regulations 2002. Dublin: Government of Ireland. 2.Eskandarlou, A., Jafari, A.A., Mohammadi, M., Zehtabian, M., Faghihi, R., Shokri, A. and Pourolajal, J. (2014) ‘Impact of rare earth element added filters on the x-ray beam spectra: A Monte Carlo approach’, Journal of X-Ray Science and Technology, 22, pp. 459-470. 3.Hess, R. and Neitzel, V. (2012) ‘Optimizing image quality and dose for digital radiography of distal pediatric extremities using the contrast-to-noise ratio’, RoFo, 184(7), pp.643-649. 4.Hansson, B., Finnbogason,...