Organ doses, effective dose, and radiation risk assessment in radiography of pediatric paranasal sinuses (Waters view)

Background: For diagnosis of acute sinusitis, conventional radiography is the investigative method of choice. While radiological examinations undoubtedly help in the proper diagnosis of various diseases, their excessive use can lead to unnecessary exposure to radiation, the biggest long-term risk of which is cancer. Awareness of effective dose and radiation risk from the radiological procedure is necessary for taking decisions about executing an X- ray examination.

Objective: We evaluated organ doses, effective doses (E), and the corresponding risk of exposure-induced cancer death resulting from paranasal sinus radiography for male and female patients in all age groups.

Materials ad Method: The radiographic technique variables used for this examination of ‘standard patients’ of six different ages (newborn, 1, 5, 10, 15-year-old, and adult) were obtained from the departments of radiology of seven public hospitals in Yazd city. PCXMC software was used to simulate projections and calculate the resulting organ and effective doses from these projections. The program also calculated the risk of death for radiationinduced cancers.

Result: For the six age groups, mean effective doses (E) were found to be 20.34, 22.52, 24.52, 25.96, 31.82 and 39.81 μSv, respectively. For male and female patients, the corresponding risk ranges were 1.14-2.59 and 1.31- 3.22 per million, respectively.

Conclusion: Results of this study can be used as a guide by physicians to conduct a risk-benefit analysis to justify radiographic assessment of paranasal sinuses before it is requested; especially for children.