• Giovanni Bibbo, Debbie Balman, and Rebecca Linke.
• SA Medical Imaging, Women's and Children's Hospital, North Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
• J Med Imaging Radiat Oncol. 2016 Aug 1; 60 (4): 469-74.

IntroductionDiagnostic reference levels (DRL) of procedures involving ionising radiation are important tools for optimising radiation doses delivered to patients and to identify cases where the levels of dose are unusually high. This is particularly important for paediatric patients undergoing fluoroscopic examinations as these examinations can be associated with a high radiation dose. In this study, a large amount of paediatric fluoroscopic data has been analysed to: establish local DRL, identify the most significant factors determining radiation dose to patients, and modify fluoroscopic techniques to optimise the examination protocols.MethodsPaediatric fluoroscopic studies performed at our institution from April 2010 to May 2015 have been retrospectively analysed to determine range, mean, 75th and 95th percentiles of Dose-Area Product (DAP) and fluoroscopic screening time for Micturating Cystourethrography (MCU), Airway, Airway and Swallow, Barium Swallow and Meal, Barium Follow Through and Barium Enema studies.ResultsCurrently, no Australian paediatric fluoroscopic DRL data are available for comparison and thus our data can only be compared with international published data. No major changes to examination protocols or modification to fluoroscopic techniques were found necessary as our data compared well with the international published values.ConclusionThe dose delivered to patients depend on a number of factors particularly the experience of the operators. However, DRL are also important, as shown in this study, as they enable best practice by providing feedback to the operators on their performance and benchmarking the institution with other institutions.© 2016 The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists.

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