Entrance radiation doses during paediatric cardiac catheterisations performed for diagnosis or the treatment of congenital heart disease

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to estimate the radiation exposure of children, during cardiac catheterisations for the diagnosis or treatment of congenital heart disease. Radiation doses were estimated for 45 children aged from 1 d to 13 y old. Thermoluminescent dosemeters (TLDs) were used to estimate the posterior entrance dose (DP), the lateral entrance dose (DLAT), the thyroid dose and the gonads dose. A dose-area product (DAP) meter was also attached externally to the tube of the angiographic system and gave a direct value in mGy cm2 for each procedure. Posterior and lateral entrance dose values during cardiac catheterisations ranged from 1 to 197 mGy and from 1.1 to 250.3 mGy, respectively. Radiation exposure to the thyroid and the gonads ranged from 0.3 to 8.4 mGy to 0.1 and 0.7 mGy, respectively. Finally, the DAP meter values ranged between 360 and 33,200 mGy cm2. Radiation doses measured in this study are comparable with those reported to previous studies. Moreover, strong correlation was found between the DAP values and the entrance radiation dose measured with TLDs.

Pilot program on patient dosimetry in pediatric interventional cardiology in Chile

“…The results of this survey show that radiation doses have a very large range (see Table IV), as shown by other pediatric surveys. 7,9,[11][12][13][14][15] However, few papers 4,5,8,10,16 reported radiation dose values by age group, as shown in Table VII. In this summary of the median values of P ka , the values of our survey tend to be lower, probably derived from the awareness of cardiologists in the management of patient doses and the careful setting of the x-ray system for pediatric protocols.…”

“…3 The first step in managing the risks from ionizing radiation is to know the dose values imparted to the patients during the imaging procedures. Several papers have been published on patient dose values for pediatric cardiac procedures, [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] but there has not yet published papers on these procedures in Latin America.…”

Cost analysis of congenital heart disease patients who underwent diagnostic catheterization

“…The catheterization procedure is carried out with all precautions to minimize the effects of radiation on the operator and patient, so that the fluoroscopy time is kept as low as possible. 19 The median radiation time was 13.3 minutes in acyanotic patients and 14.3 minutes in cyanotic patients. Kumar et al found that radiation time ranged from 2.4 to 11 minutes in acyanotic patients and 8-28 minutes in cyanotic patients.…”

Substantial radiation reduction in pediatric and adult congenital heart disease interventions with a novel X-ray imaging technology

“…Even though the long-term risks of fatal malignancy following a single pediatric catheter investigation seems very low, the effect of repetitive exposure is unclear [7], [31]. In general, DAP values measured during pediatric catheterizations show an excellent correlation with the entrance radiation dose and skin doses measured with thermoluminescent dosemeters (TLDs) or can be transferred by calculation models to effective doses and are therefore valid to obtain a real-time measurement of the total amount of radiation used [4], [13], [32], [33], [34], [35]. Similar results are obtained when calculating effective doses from DAP as published by the International Commission on Radiology Protection and measuring the effects on DNA damage [8].…”