A survey of radiation dose associated with pediatric plain-film chest X-ray examinations.

Background: The effective doses delivered to pediatric patients are not well characterized for many plain-film X-ray examination techniques. The few data available on clinical doses in pediatric radiology are generally outdated because of the changes in X-ray generators and hardware that have taken place over the past decade.

Objective: This survey characterizes X-ray examination techniques and measures effective doses delivered to a phantom representing a 1 year old in order to identify specific examination features that may result in greater than necessary doses to pediatric patients.