What is the chest x-ray dose for a thin adult?
A chest x ray is a low dose procedure. If a single radiograph is taken with the patient’s back towards the x-ray tube (posteroanterior study, or PA for short), typical effective doses are 0.02 millisieverts (mSv) with doses reported in the literature ranging from 0.007 mSv to 0.05 mSv. Because lower settings can be used, the effective dose from a PA chest radiograph to a “thin adult” would likely be less than typical.
Sometimes chest studies include an image taken from the side, called a lateral view (LAT). If a chest study was performed that included both a PA and an LAT, the typical effective dose is 0.1 mSv with doses reported in the literature from 0.05 mSv to 0.24 mSv. Again, the effective dose from a PA and lateral chest radiograph to a thin adult would likely be lower than typical.
These are low doses—the same dose would be received from naturally occurring radiation in the environment in about three days for the PA chest radiograph and 12 days for the PA and LAT chest radiographs, respectively.
Kent Lambert, CHP, FHPS
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