Equivalence between incubators and cradles for chest pediatric radiographic examinations

The X-rays spectrum suffers changes when crossing attenuating materials. Thus, a study was conducted to determine the absorption factor of these attenuators (incubators and cradles) in X-ray spectrum. The absorption factors were measured using PMMA plates, with thicknesses ranging from (8-11) cm in steps of 1cm. The procedure performed consisted in measuring the radiation exposures (incident and transmitted). The results for the radiation absorption factors of the incubators showed that except for the incubator (FANEM-Vision), the absorption factors are the same. The evaluated cradles behave similarly to the variation to the incubators, so that the thicknesses of phantoms (PMMA) did not significantly influence the absorption factors of the evaluated cradles. (author)