Measurement of irradiation doses secondary to bedside radiographs in a medical intensive care unit.

The authors prospectively studied the radiation doses to radio-sensitive organs secondary to bedside radiographs in intensive care patients and in a control phantom. Dosimeters were taped on different organs during each bedside X-ray. The mean radiation doses, expressed in 10(-5) Gy (m-rad), for an "average patient" who was hospitalized 9 days and had 6 chest X-rays were respectively: 292 to the sternal bone marrow; 239 to the thyroid gland; 3 to the testes; 1 to the ovaries; 605 to the eye for 2 maxillary sinus X-rays. No diffused irradiation was measured during a 2-month period in the intensive care unit nor on dosimeters worn by four nurses.