title: Number of X-ray examinations performed on paediatric and geriatric patients compared with adult patients.
abstract: The age of the patient is of prime importance when assessing the radiological risk to patients due to medical X-ray exposures and the total detriment to the population due to radiodiagnostics. In order to take into account the age-specific radiosensitivity, three age groups are considered: children, adults and the elderly. In this work, the relative number of examinations carried out on paediatric and geriatric patients is established, compared with adult patients, for radiodiagnostics as a whole, for dental and medical radiology, for 8 radiological modalities as well as for 40 types of X-ray examinations. The relative numbers of X-ray examinations are determined based on the corresponding age distributions of patients and that of the general population. Two broad groups of X-ray examinations may be defined. Group A comprises conventional radiography, fluoroscopy and computed tomography; for this group a paediatric patient undergoes half the number of examinations as that of an adult, and a geriatric patient undergoes 2.5 times more. Group B comprises angiography and interventional procedures; for this group a paediatric patient undergoes a one-fourth of the number of examinations carried out on an adult, and a geriatric patient undergoes five times more.
authors.affiliation: University Institute of Radiation Physics (IRA-DUMSC), University of Lausanne, Grand-Pré 1, CH-1007 Lausanne, Switzerland. abbas@aroua.com
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aroua
authors.forename: F O
authors.initials: FO
authors.lastname: Bochud
authors.forename: J-F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Valley
authors.forename: J-P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Vader
authors.forename: F R
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Verdun
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011859:Radiography / Q000145:classification* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D012307:Risk Factors; D013557:Switzerland