Computed radiography dose optimization in pediatric patients

Radiation dose reduction in pediatric X-ray imaging is especially important because of children radiation sensitivity. For any radiographic examination performed at a fixed radiographic tube potential, the patient absorbed dose is directly proportional to the value of milliampere-seconds (mAs) selected by the operator. Nevertheless, reducing X-ray exposure has the unavoidable disadvantage of increasing the quantum noise in the resultant image. The objective of this work is to identify the minimum tube current setting required for maintaining accurate examinations, to modify, if required, the daily protocols applied at La Fe de Valencia University Hospital. To accomplish this goal, a noise addition software has been developed in order to study the diagnostic accuracy as a function of reducing dose by artificially increasing the image noise. The noise addition tool has been applied to several thorax images acquired from pediatric unit to simulate new lower dose radiographies and allow medical researchers to study how lower dose affects the patient pneumonia diagnosis. (author)