Reducing Dose for Digital Cranial Radiography: The Increased Source to the Image-receptor Distance Approach

This investigation proposes that an increased source to the image-receptor distance (SID) technique can be used to optimize occipital frontal and lateral cranial radiographs acquired with direct digital radiography. Although cranial radiography is not performed on a routine basis, it should nonetheless be optimized to keep the dose to the patient as low as reasonably achievable, particularly because it can form part of the facial bone and sinus series. Dose measurements were acquired at various SIDs, and image quality was assessed using visual grading analysis. Statistically significant reductions in the effective dose between 19.2% and 23.9% were obtained when the SID was increased from the standard 100 to 150 cm (P ≤ .05), and visual grading analysis scores indicate that image quality remained diagnostically acceptable for both projections. This investigation concludes that increasing the SID effectively optimizes occipital frontal and lateral skull radiographs. Radiology departments must be advised of the benefits of this technique with the goal of introducing an updated reference SID of 150 cm into clinical practice.