Towards the definition of Institutional diagnostic reference levels in paediatric interventional cardiology procedures in Greece

• Published in: Physica medica 2018-02, Vol.46, p.52-58
• Main Authors: Kottou, S., Kollaros, N., Plemmenos, C., Mastorakou, I., Apostolopoulou, S.C., Tsapaki, V.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Institutional Local Diagnostic Reference Levels; Interventional Cardiology; Kerma Area Product; Paediatric patients
• ISSN: 1120-1797; 1724-191X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ejmp.2018.01.009

•The aim was to evaluate paediatric radiation doses in a dedicated cardiac hospital.•The large range of patient dose data observed mainly depends on procedure complexity.•The lack of paediatric IC DRLs makes the identification of good practices harder.•Data analysis is difficult due to the lack of examination nomenclature standardisation.•A consensus is needed on IC patient grouping in order to allow a common assessment. This study aimed to evaluate paediatric radiation doses in a dedicated cardiology hospital, with the objective of characterising patterns in dose variation. The ultimate purpose was to define Local (Institutional) Diagnostic Reference Levels (LDRLs) for different types of paediatric cardiac interventional procedures (IC), according to patient age. From a total of 710 cases performed during three consecutive years, by operators with more than 15 years of experience, the age was noted in only 477 IC procedures. The median values obtained for Fluoroscopy Time (FT), Number of Frames (N) and Kerma Area Product (PKA) by age range were 5.8 min, 1322 and 2.0 Gy.cm2 for