Diagnostic Reference Levels in Interventional Pediatric Cardiology: Two-Year Experience in a Tertiary Referral Hospital in Latin America

Abstract

The goal of the present study was to propose the first local diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) for interventional pediatric cardiology procedures in a large hospital in Colombia. The data collection period was from April 2020 to July 2022. The local DRLs were calculated as the 3rd quartile of patient-dose distributions for the kerma-area product (Pka) values. The sample of collected clinical procedures (255) was divided into diagnostic and therapeutic procedures and grouped into five weight and five age bands. The Pka differences found between diagnostic and therapeutic procedures were statistically significant in all weight and age bands, except for the 1–5-year age group. The local DRLs for weight bands were 3.82 Gy·cm2 (<5 kg), 7.39 Gy·cm2 (5–<15 kg), 19.72 Gy·cm2 (15–<30 kg), 28.99 Gy·cm2 (30–<50 kg), and 81.71 Gy·cm2 (50–<80 kg), respectively. For age bands, the DRLs were 3.97 Gy·cm2 (<1 y), 9.94 Gy·cm2 (1–<5 y), 20.82 Gy·cm2 (5–<10 y), 58.00 Gy·cm2 (10–<16 y), and 31.56 Gy·cm2 (<16 y), respectively. In conclusion, when comparing our results with other existing DRL values, we found that they are similar to other centers and thus there is scope to continue optimizing the radiation dose values. This will contribute to establishing national DRLs for Colombia in the near future.