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Updated: Jun 7, 2026
X-ray Dose Reduction through Adaptive Exposure in Fluoroscopic Imaging
Published on: September 11, 2011
Radiation dose to the pediatric cardiac catheterization and intervention patient
Koichi Chida1, Tadayuki Ohno, Shuhei Kakizaki
1Department of Radiological Technology, Tohoku University, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan. chida@mail.tains.tohoku.ac.jp
Insights
Radiation doses from pediatric cardiac catheterization and interventional radiology procedures are significant. Body weight strongly correlates with radiation dose, indicating it
Area of Science:
- Pediatric radiology
- Medical physics
- Interventional cardiology
Background:
- Children's radiosensitivity necessitates careful radiation dose management.
- Increasing use of interventional radiology procedures may elevate pediatric radiation exposure.
Purpose of the Study:
- To report radiation doses and related factors in children undergoing cardiac catheterization versus other interventional radiology procedures.
- To assess the correlation between radiation dose metrics and patient/procedural factors.
Main Methods:
- Evaluated 239 pediatric patients undergoing cardiac catheterization (n=205) or interventional radiology (n=34).
- Measured dose-area product (DAP), fluoroscopic time, cine runs, and patient body weight.
- Calculated weight-fluoroscopic time product.
Main Results:
- Average DAP was 1,702.6 cGy×cm² for cardiac catheterization and 2,242.2 cGy×cm² for interventional radiology.
- Average fluoroscopy time was 24.1 min for cardiac catheterization and 37.2 min for interventional radiology.
- Strong correlations found between DAP and weight-fluoroscopic time product (r=0.885–0.906) and DAP and weight (r=0.819–0.895).
Conclusions:
- Body weight is a key factor in determining pediatric radiation dose for both procedure types.
- Interventional radiology procedures in children resulted in higher normalized DAP, fluoroscopy time, and cine runs.
- Radiation dose from pediatric interventional radiology procedures requires critical attention.
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.
Materials And 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).
Conclusion:
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.
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