Radiation exposure and estimate of late effects of chest roentgen examination in children.

The energy imparted and the radiation dose to the lungs, the breasts, the thyroid and to the bone marrow at chest radiography of infants and children were measured or calculated and the risk of inducing future malignant diseases was estimated. The radiation doses to the various organs corresponded to 5 to 30 per cent of the yearly background radiation. In infants of both sexes as well as for boys at a later age, radiation-induced leukemia and thyroid carcinoma constituted the greatest risk of future malignancies. After infancy, girls were more exposed to the risk of future breast carcinoma. On the whole, the risk of developing breast carcinoma constitutes a greater problem than does, for example, the risk of leukemia. Reversing the beam direction from postero-anterior to anteroposterior increases this risk while the risk of leukemia will remain unchanged.