Radiation Dose to Newborns in Neonatal Intensive Care Units

Background: With the increase of X-ray use for medical diagnostic purposes, knowing the given doses is necessary in patients for comparison with reference levels. The concept of reference doses or diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) has been developed as a practical aid in the optimization of patient protection in diagnostic radiology. Objectives: To assess the radiation doses to neonates from diagnostic radiography (chest and abdomen). This study has been carried out in the neonatal intensive care unit of a province in Iran. Patients and Methods: Entrance surface dose (ESD) was measured directly with thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs). The population included 195 neonates admitted for a diagnostic radiography, in eight NICUs of different hospital types. Results: The mean ESD for chest and abdomen examinations were 76.3 μGy and 61.5 μGy, respectively. DRLs for neonate in NICUs of the province were 88 μGy for chest and 98 μGy for abdomen examinations that were slightly higher than other studies. Risk of death due to radiation cancer incidence of abdomens examination was equal to 1.88 × 10 -6 for male and 4.43 × 10 -6 for female. For chest X-ray, it was equal to 2.54 × 10 -6 for male and 1.17 × 10 -5 for female patients. Conclusions: DRLs for neonates in our province were slightly higher than values reported by other studies such as European national diagnostic reference levels and the NRPB reference dose. The main reason was related to using a high mAs and a low kVp applied in most departments and also a low focus film distance (FFD). Probably lack of collimation also affected some exams in the NICUs.