Evaluation of paediatric X-ray doses in Moroccan university hospitals.

This work evaluates the entrance skin dose (ESD), the body organ dose (BOD) and the effective dose (E) for chest X-ray exposures of paediatric patients. Two Moroccan university hospitals in Rabat, composed of two departments, and one in Casablanca with one paediatric compartment has been considered. For reasons of confidentiality, the departments are named A, B and C. Patients were divided into four age groups: 0-1, 1-5, 5-10 and 10-15 y, so that the results could be compared with previous published data found in the literature. The results have been calculated with the use of the Dose Cal software. Results of mean ESD for the age interval 1-5 y and antero-posterior (AP) projection are: 162 µGy for hospital A, 91 µGy for hospital B and 105 µGy for hospital C. The diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) of 100 µGy for this age range is exceeded in hospital A, while in the other two hospitals results were within the DRL and comparable with the results found in Brazil, Soudan, Nigeria and other radiological centres inpean Countries. The results of BOD and E showed that for the three departments, the BOD varies in the same proportion as the ESD. The highest values are those of hospital A. For the PA examination, the dose is reduced compared with the AP projection, especially for sensitive organs.