Patient and staff doses in paediatric interventional cardiology derived from experimental measurements with phantoms

The aim of this paper was to determine experimentally the entrance surface air kerma (ESAK) and kerma-area product (KAP) levels to patients and scatter doses at the cardiologist's eyes during paediatric interventional cardiology (IC) procedures for Chile, on the basis of measurements taken from X-ray systems characterization for different thicknesses of polymethyl methacrylate, together with the average values of fluoroscopy time and number of cine frames for ten paediatric IC procedures. The range of cumulative ESAK values when the different clinical procedures were simulated was from 2 to 1100 mGy. KAP values ranged from 0.30 to 150 Gy cm(2). Scatter doses at cardiologist's eyes for the simulated procedures ranged from 0.20 to 116 µSv per procedure. Large differences between the X-ray systems were found in our study. Standardized guidelines in terms of X-ray system setting and protocols should be developed for hospitals that perform paediatric IC procedures in Chile.