An article published on the ScienceDirect portal brought the theme: “Optimized protocol for repeated chest X-ray in a pediatric cardiac intensive care unit”.

The study came about because “radiographic examinations are crucial to diagnosis and management of young patients hospitalized in a pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU). Since these infants are often subject to a large number of repeated X-ray examinations in order to follow up their clinical situation, special attention must be paid to use protocol aimed to dose reduction”.

The objective of the study was to carry out a radiological survey of children undergoing chest X-ray examinations in an ICU, focusing on the assessment of collimation, Dose-Area-Product (DAP) and Effective Doses (E) in patients undergoing repeated examinations with protocols optimized.

Their results showed that DAP and E values ​​obtained with the optimized protocol were relatively low compared to previous literature. Particularly, DAP and E decrease up to 15% and 16%, respectively, using the optimized protocol. Such data are particularly relevant for patients undergoing a large number of repeated X-ray examinations.

Check out the full study here.