Aims and objectives
Keeping the patient radiation dose at a minimum,
while maintaining optimal diagnostic image quality,
is particularly important when imaging young children.
In our children’s hospital hip X-rays are performed on a large number of babies undergoing diagnosis and management of developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH).
In early 2018,
our hospital installed its first Digital Radiography (DR) X-ray system.
Until that time,
all general X-ray was carried out using two Computed Radiography (CR) systems.
The aim of this work was to examine if the change...
Methods and materials
A consecutive sample of DR images of babies,
4 to 12 months old,
who underwent hip X-rays for evaluation of DDH,
was identified over a period of six months,
were compared to a similar sample of CR images.
The Dose-Area Product (DAP) was recorded using the integrated DAP meters.
However,
for a minority of images,
estimation of the radiation dose to these babies was retrospectively calculated using the recorded exposure factors
To assess image quality,
a sample of both CR and DR images were reviewed...
Results
Table 2 presents the results of the dose audit.
The average (and range of) exposure factors for both systems are indicated.
The average dose used in the DR system was found to be 32% less than the dose when using the CR system.
Figure 2 shows a comparison of a CR image with a DR for patients of similar age.
While there is a slight perceived reduction in the sharpness and contrast of the of the DR image,
the position of the femoral head and...
Conclusion
When imaging babies’ hips using the new DR X-ray systems at our hospital,
a dose reduction of over 32% compared to our CR dose,
was achieved,
without compromising diagnostic image quality.The majority of radiographs of babies’ hips at our hospital are now done using the DR X-ray system.
Personal information
This work was carried out by staff at Temple Street Children's University Hospital which is part of the Children’s Health Ireland Hospital Group.
The authors would like to thank the radiographer staff of Temple Street Children’s University Hospital for their assistance in the collection of data,
as well as Dr Eilish Twomey and Dr Yusra Sheikh,
Consultant Radiologists,
for their assistance in scoring the clinical images.
Conference attendance was part funded by the Temple Street Foundation.
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