title: Radiation dose to newborns in neonatal intensive care units.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  With the increase of X-ray use for medical diagnostic purposes, knowing the given doses is necessary in patients for comparison with reference levels. The concept of reference doses or diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) has been developed as a practical aid in the optimization of patient protection in diagnostic radiology.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To assess the radiation doses to neonates from diagnostic radiography (chest and abdomen). This study has been carried out in the neonatal intensive care unit of a province in Iran.
  
  
  METHODS
  Entrance surface dose (ESD) was measured directly with thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs). The population included 195 neonates admitted for a diagnostic radiography, in eight NICUs of different hospital types.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean ESD for chest and abdomen examinations were 76.3 µGy and 61.5 µGy, respectively. DRLs for neonate in NICUs of the province were 88 µGy for chest and 98 µGy for abdomen examinations that were slightly higher than other studies. Risk of death due to radiation cancer incidence of abdomens examination was equal to 1.88 × 10 (-6) for male and 4.43 × 10 (-6) for female. For chest X-ray, it was equal to 2.54 × 10 (-6) for male and 1.17 × 10 (-5) for female patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  DRLs for neonates in our province were slightly higher than values reported by other studies such as European national diagnostic reference levels and the NRPB reference dose. The main reason was related to using a high mAs and a low kVp applied in most departments and also a low focus film distance (FFD). Probably lack of collimation also affected some exams in the NICUs.
authors: Medical Physics Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
authors: Mohammad Taghi
authors: MT
authors: Bahreyni Toossi
authors: Malakeh
authors: M
authors: Malekzadeh
keywords: Intensive Care Units; Neonatal; Radiation Dosimetry