How often can X-rays be taken to children?

It's hard to believe that a little over a century ago people did not hear about such a routine procedure as an X-ray. The use of X-rays for medical purposes began almost immediately after their discovery. Such an investigation is based on their peculiarity to weaken, passing through the tissues of the organism, and reflected in the shape of the surveyed organ on the surface of the future image.

Nowadays it is one of the most reliable and widely used methods in the medical field to confirm such serious diagnoses as tuberculosis or pneumonia. Of course, the X-ray functional is not limited to diagnosing these diseases. After all, enlighten with their help, you can almost any human body.

How it's done?

For the examinee this procedure does not represent any complexity. In the radiology room, as a rule, the patient is offered to wear a special lead apron as a protection, covering the entire body and leaving the lumen only on the site that is to be examined. To undergo the procedure, the patient should undress to the waist and get rid of all metal - jewelry, pins, pins.

Then the patient becomes on a special platform and on command squeezes to the metal plate with the chest, and the chin - to the stand intended for this in the body of the device. After that, the examining officer is removed from the protective screen and instructs to inhale and hold his breath for a while.

This is done to ensure that the chest at the time of photography was the maximum width, and the lumens open. In this situation, the picture is easiest to study and identify the existing problems. As the X-ray of a child's lung is done, the photo below illustrates this clearly. It shows the position of a small patient in front of the device and the role of the parent in this case

Where can I take a lung X-ray to a child?

Such studies are carried out by medical institutions that have a qualified specialist with a permit for this type of work, equipped with an office equipped with the necessary documentation, and, of course, permission for this type of activity.

Most often, such offices are equipped in polyclinics, trauma centers or specialized phthisiatric health facilities. According to sanitary norms, X-ray equipment should be placed in a building that is standing alone. It is not allowed to arrange such an office in residential buildings, the first floor of which is given to a medical institution.

Who is allowed to carry out this procedure? In order to have access to radiology research, a specialist must have completed education in the medical field at a level not lower than the curative one, in addition, receive special training. This work is among the harmful, therefore employees of X-ray rooms have the appropriate category and preferential length of service.

Parental doubts

When parents are told that their child is being given an X-ray study, many questions immediately arise. The main of them: how necessary is this type of research? Is there an alternative? What kind of option is it - fluorography, x-ray or CT? What if the results obtained in the picture do not satisfy the physicians? Can children do X-rays of the lung repeatedly with a short interval?

The last point should immediately be determined: do not settle for a second procedure! Take the results and take it to another doctor.

X-ray of lungs to children appoint, as a rule, rarely, only for important indications. But sometimes there is no other way to confirm or deny a certain disease. The most informative and at the same time sparing from the types of X-ray study is a computer tomography. But this procedure is not too easy and requires a long stay in a fixed position, which is sometimes impossible for the baby.

What is worse?

X-rays of the lungs for children are considered slightly more harmful than tomography, but the procedure takes much less time and is prescribed even to the newborn. Since the slightest movement during the process of obtaining a snapshot can spoil the result, parents of the youngest patients are encouraged to be present during the procedure and keep the baby still for a short time.

In this case, the body of the parent, as well as the rest of the body of the baby (except the one being examined), must be protected with a protective lead shield.

The most severe and dangerous for health is considered fluorography, which children are strictly forbidden to do. It is applied from the age of not less than 16-18 years.

A few words about adults

Healthy people do not need a lung X-ray procedure, but according to the existing sanitary norms, the entire adult population is obliged once a year to undergo a prophylactic fluorography study with a check mark on the outpatient card and in the health register. Mass checks of employees exist at many enterprises.

Some argue whether it is possible to detect by fluorography or X-ray of lungs the presence of such a harmful habit as smoking. Unfortunately no. Determine this is possible only with the help of computer tomography, and then only when in the lungs of a smoker with many years of experience, serious negative changes began.

Is it possible to make this procedure pregnant? No, X-rays are categorically contraindicated because of the very high risk of developing a fetal mutation.

Then what?

What happens after the procedure? The next stage is the study by a specialist specialist of the received image and its description. The qualification of a medical worker in this case is very, very important. His task is not to miss the slightest detail in the picture.

How to determine, for example, lung cancer? To confirm this diagnosis, use a CT or X-ray. But if there are no other expressed symptoms of this dangerous disease, most often lung cancer is found on a fluorographic photograph. It looks like a round spot and reminds a coin visually.

The presence of pneumonia is indicated by a clearly visible darkened area in the picture of the lungs, by the form of which the doctor determines the localization and stage of the disease. If to speak about a tuberculosis, its initial signs are revealed at carrying out of the annual x-ray examination (in adults). If there is suspicion, the patient is referred to an X-ray that is much more effective.

If the patient has bronchitis, the X-ray image shows a thickening of the bronchial walls, an intensified pulmonary pattern and blurred edges of the roots of the lungs. Inflammation, like pneumonia, has a clearly defined dark spot on the picture. The symptoms of emphysema are similar to those of bronchitis, but are even more pronounced.

About the results

Having deciphered a snapshot, the specialist records the results - his conclusions in the patient's card and in the direction sheet. This entry is an official confirmation or refutation of the diagnosis. In this case, the use of the term "blackout" means the presence of a dark spot in the lighter part of the lung picture. But sometimes this also applies to spots that are lighter compared to the surrounding background.

If we are talking about healthy lungs, a homogeneous structure, a clear even pattern and the absence of any spots with blackouts are indicated.

X-ray of the lungs to the child - how often?

The absolute majority of parents are asked the same questions. How often can X-rays be taken to the baby? How harmful is the examination? What is the total dose of radiation during the year should and can be considered safe?

X-rays that affect the body in this procedure are radioactive. With radiation, in serious quantities obtained by cells, a mutation called radiation sickness is possible, and as a consequence, various tumors.

But the rays emitted by the X-ray apparatus carry an extremely low dose of such irradiation. You can compare it with the dose received in a large city with a dense population and a radiation background of an average level for several days.

On the appropriateness of appointments

A disposable x-ray of the head, hip joints or thorax refers to ordinary medical examinations and is considered not bearing any specific harm to the child. Nevertheless, such studies are appointed by doctors only in case of serious danger or impossibility in their absence of the correct diagnosis.

So, the course of antibiotics prescribed for suspected pneumonia without sufficient evidence may be much more harmful than the preliminary lung X-ray. Children need this appointment must be established accurately. Medical practice has many cases where the microdoses received by the baby radiation are much more harmless to his health than the consequences of a categorical refusal to carry out an X-ray. After all, he is able to detect fracture of bones, their correct or incorrect fusion, foreign body in the stomach and the like.

We receive a certain dose of radiation from air, food and water. And also at airports during the passage of introscopes and during air flights.

When and how much?

What is the amount of X-ray irradiation considered safe? First of all, it should be borne in mind that each locality has its own radiation background. It depends on the ecological situation, the presence or absence of rocks, altitude above sea level.

According to the conclusion of the WHO, an X-ray image of a child is assigned only if there is no possibility of correct diagnosis without it. Most often it is about injuries and bruises of the skull, jaw, problems with the hip joints. If you spend no more than 5-6 such procedures within a year, the radiation background of the child's organism is not threatened by changes and negative consequences can be neglected.

According to statistics, such a rule is extremely rare, except for cases of serious injuries, in which the need for an X-ray image appears much more often. It is very important, on what apparatus the picture is taken. Modern technology allows you to minimize the impact of X-rays on the child's body, while achieving the most accurate image.

That is why parents who received a referral to the X-ray of the lungs to the child, where to make it, it is worth thinking about. It is necessary to choose an institution with the most modern medical equipment, especially if the total previously taken dose of radiation is already quite large.

Let's talk about the smallest

One of the most urgent parental questions: do children make X-rays of the lungs in the first year of life, and if not, then at what age? And how often are such studies possible?

Sometimes an infant needs an X-ray examination immediately after birth - in the case of deformation of the bones of the skull or dislocation of the hip joints during movement along the birth canal. In such situations, the picture is taken in the first days after birth. Children during the procedure are protected by placing in a special chamber and covering from the irradiation the rest of the body, except for the area under investigation.

In what cases is X-ray to children mandatory? The doctor will certainly take a picture of the chest, suspecting pneumonia, in case of a fracture of the ribs or problems with the vertebral column. For prevention, this procedure does not apply. The method of detecting tuberculosis in children is the Mantoux test, and only with a constant increase in her doctor is prescribed an additional lung examination.

Sometimes a child needs a snapshot of teeth in cases of dental problems. If there is a suspicion that the baby is ingested with a foreign body, a study of the abdominal cavity is prescribed.