Organ and effective doses from paediatric interventional cardiology procedures in Chile

The aim of this study was to present the results of organ and effective doses for paediatric patients for different types of interventional cardiology procedures for age and weight groups, derived from a patient dosimetry pilot programme carried out in Chile, under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Over seven years, a retrospective collection of demographic and patient dose data was obtained: age, gender, weight, height, number of cine series, total number of cine frames, fluoroscopy time, dose-area product (DAP) and cumulative dose at patient entrance reference point. Monte Carlo software was used to calculate organ and effective doses. 1506 procedures were divided into four age and seven weight groups. Organ doses (median values) for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures were: active bone marrow 0.90 and 0.64 mGy; heart 1.99 and 1.46 mGy; lungs 3.56 and 2.59 mGy; thyroid 1.27 and 0.83; and breast (in the case of females) 1.78 and 1.36 mGy. The ranges for effective doses (median values) and weight bands were 1.2–3.9 mSv for diagnostic procedures and 1.0–2.5 mSv for therapeutic procedures. The resulting conversion factors (median values) to estimate effective dose from DAP (in mSv/Gy.cm2) were: 1.70; 0.89; 0.58; and 0.40, for age groups of <1 year, 1–<5 years, 5–<10 years and 10–<16 years, respectively. The obtained set of dose values will enable comparisons with other imaging procedures (comparing the same age bands) for justification and optimization purposes.