Radiation dose to the pediatric cardiac catheterization and intervention patient.
OBJECTIVE
The radiation dose from cardiac catheterization is particularly relevant when treating children because of their greater radiosensitivity compared with adults. Moreover, cardiac catheterization is being used increasingly for interventional radiology procedures, possibly resulting in higher patient radiation doses. This article reports the radiation doses and related factors, such as fluoroscopy time, for children who underwent cardiac catheterization and children who underwent other interventional radiology procedures.


METHODS
We evaluated 239 consecutive patients who underwent cardiac catheterization (n = 205) or another interventional radiology procedure (n = 34) for which the dose-area product (DAP) was measured. The number of cine runs and fluoroscopic time for each procedure and the body mass index and body weight of each patient were recorded. We also used the double product combined with body weight, which is the weight- fluoroscopic time product.


RESULTS
The average DAP ± SD of cardiac catheterization and of an interventional radiology procedure was 1,702.6 ± 2,110.1 cGy × cm² and 2,242.2 ± 2,509.4 cGy × cm², respectively. The average fluoroscopic time ± SD of cardiac catheterization and of an interventional radiology procedure was 24.1 ± 16.8 minutes and 37.2 ± 20.0 minutes. For children who underwent cardiac catheterization and those who underwent an interventional radiology procedure, a strong correlation was seen between the DAP and weight-fluoroscopic time product (cardiac catheterization, r = 0.906; interventional radiology procedure, r = 0.885) and a good correlation was detected between the DAP and weight (r = 0.819 and 0.895, respectively).


CONCLUSIONS
There was a good correlation between the DAP and weight and between DAP and weight-fluoroscopic time product for children who underwent cardiac catheterization or an interventional radiology procedure. Therefore, body weight is important for determining radiation dose to children undergoing cardiac catheterization or an interventional radiology procedure. The normalized DAP (i.e., DAP divided by body weight), fluoroscopy time, and number of cine runs were greater in children who underwent an interventional radiology procedure than in those who underwent cardiac catheterization. Therefore, the radiation dose to children from interventional radiology procedures is a more critical issue.
Chida
Koichi
K
Department of Radiological Technology, Tohoku University, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan. chida@mail.tains.tohoku.ac.jp
Ohno
Tadayuki
T
Kakizaki
Shuhei
S
Takegawa
Mika
M
Yuuki
Hiroko
H
Nakada
Mitsuru
M
Takahashi
Shoki
S
Zuguchi
Masayuki
M
D015992:Body Mass Index; D006328:Cardiac Catheterization; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005471:Fluoroscopy; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D015641:Radiography, Interventional; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors