Purpose Paediatric radiation dose from scoliosis X-ray examinations is of concern because of its routine nature. Few studies have calculated effective dose which is the primary indicator of radiation risk. This study reports on the use of a new flexible Monte Carlo software package PCXMC14 for such calculation from documented radiographic and patient data. Method Patient and radiographic data were collected from 54 patient examinations for both postero-anterior (PA) and lateral X-ray projections. A spreadsheet mainly based on radiographic calibration was used to process the raw data and compute entrance air kerma for input in the PCXMC program. A partitioning model was developed to more accurately estimate the effect of an aluminium wedge filter. Results Results showed the effective dose ranged from 81 to 123μSv for the PA projection and 124 to 207μSv for the lateral projection, with patient weights varying from 20 to 70kg. Conclusions This study demonstrates the usefulness of the PCXMC program to evaluate the effective dose in paediatric scoliosis radiography.
