Estimation of organ and effective doses from newborn radiography of the chest and abdomen

Abstract

Neonatal intensive care patients undergo frequent chest and abdomen radiographic imaging. In this study, the organ doses and the effective dose resulting from combined chest-abdomen radiography of the newborn child are determined. These values are calculated using the Monte Carlo simulation software PCXCM 2.0 and compared with direct dose measurements obtained from thermoluminescent detectors (TLDs) in a physical phantom. The effective dose obtained from PCXMC is 21.2 ± 0.7 μSv and that obtained from TLD measurements is 22.0 ± 0.5 μSv. While the two methods are in close agreement with regard to the effective dose, there is a wide range of variation in organ doses, ranging from 85 % difference for the testes to 1.4 % for the lungs. Large organ dose variations are attributed to organs at the edge of the field of view, or organs with large experimental error or simulation uncertainty. This study suggests that PCXMC can be used to estimate organ and effective doses for newborn patients.