Program Information
Evaluation of Radiation Dose From Skeletal Survey of Suspected Child Abuse
J Wang1*, (1) Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Presentations
TU-C3-GePD-I-6 (Tuesday, August 1, 2017) 10:30 AM - 11:00 AM Room: Imaging ePoster Lounge
Purpose: To conduct a systematic study of radiation dose from skeletal survey of children from 0 to 12 years old
Methods: At our Children’s hospital, a typical skeletal survey exam using radiography includes 4 chest x-ray, 1 lumbar spine x-ray, 1 pelvis x-ray, 2 skull x-ray, and x-ray of upper and lower extremities. Fourteen skeletal survey cases of age ranging from 3-month-old to 12-year-old were collected. The cases were grouped into four age categories: [under 6month], [6m to 3y], [3y to 7y], and [7y to 12y]. The entrance skin air kerma (ESAK) was calculated for every case, and the average ESAK for each age category were obtained. Effective dose from each x-ray exam in a skeletal survey was calculated using a commercial Monte Carlo simulation software PCXMC. Specifically, for each of the four age categories, a mathematical anthropomorphic phantom of representative size was selected. The average ESAK from patient data was incorporated in simulation to achieve the real-world dose estimation.
Results: The effective dose from a skeletal survey exam is 0.13, 0.15, 0.24 and 0.62 mSv for four age groups, respectively. Due to the increase in body size, dose from each scan of the skeletal survey increases with age. Among all the x-ray exams of a skeletal survey, the four chest x-ray contribute nearly 60% of total dose. The two skull x-ray contribute 10-20% of total dose. The scans of upper and lower extremities contribute less than 2% of the overall dose.
Conclusion: Radiation dose from skeletal survey exam of children of 4 age groups were estimated by adopting ESAK of patient data in Monte Carlo simulation. These information can be useful for providing risk information to patient’s family and optimizing x-ray imaging techniques.
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