Cumulative effective doses delivered by radiographs to preterm infants in a neonatal intensive care unit.

Objective: We sought to determine the number and distribution of radiographs and the cumulative effective radiograph doses (cED) received by a population of preterm infants (PIs) hospitalized in an NICU.

Study Design: We reviewed the files of all preterm infants (gestational age: <34 weeks) who were admitted to an NICU during an 18-month period and were discharged alive. A generalized additive model was used to study the relationship between cED and patient characteristics.