Exposure of the French paediatric population to ionising radiation from diagnostic medical procedures in 2010

Background Medical examination is the main source of artificial radiation exposure. Because children present an increased sensitivity to ionising radiation, radiology practices at a national level in paediatrics should be monitored. Objective This study describes the ionising radiation exposure from diagnostic medical examinations of the French paediatric population in 2010. Materials and methods Data on frequency of examinations were provided by the French National Health Insurance through a representative sample including 107,627 children ages 015 years. Effective doses for each type of procedure were obtained from the published French literature. Median and mean effective doses were calculated for the studied population. Results About a third of the children were exposed to at least one examination using ionising radiation in 2010. Conventional radiology, dental exams, CT scans and nuclear medicine and interventional radiology represent respectively 55.3%, 42.3%, 2.1% and 0.3% of the procedures. Children 10-15 years old and babies from birth to 1 year are the most exposed populations, with respectively 1,098 and 734 examinations per 1,000 children per year. Before 1 year of age, chest and pelvis radiographs are the most common imaging tests, 54% and 32%, respectively. Only 1% of the studied population is exposed to CT scan, with 62% of these children exposed to a head-and-neck procedure. The annual median and mean effective doses were respectively 0.03 mSv and 0.7 mSv for the exposed children. Conclusion This study gives updated reference data on French paediatric exposure to medical ionising radiation that can be used for public health or epidemiological purposes. Paediatric diagnostic use appears much lower than that of the whole French population as estimated in a previous study.