Introduction of grids to mobile ICU radiography in a teaching hospital

The purpose of this study was to review the change in image quality before and after introducing grid use routinely to our mobile X-ray service. This was studied in the intensive care unit (ICU) setting, comparing images obtained over a 2 week period prior to and after the introduction of the change in technique. We introduced a 6:1 grid with appropriate changes in exposure factors. No other alterations were made. There were 133 patients in the preliminary group and 196 patients in the post-grid group. We found a reduction in the proportion of images that were of non-diagnostic or barely diagnostic quality. Non-diagnostic examinations were reduced from 18% to 1%. Introducing grids to our mobile service resulted in improvement in image diagnostic quality, largely by reducing the proportion of poor and unacceptable quality images. This effect does not appear to have been documented in the literature.