The aim of this work was to estimate the absorbed dose and its distrib
ution for frontal and lateral chest X rays in paediatric patients. A s
tudy of 126 children at one hospital in Sweden was carried out. Two ex
amination techniques were used. For the patient measurements dose-area
product meters and TL dosemeters were used. Entrance surface dose, en
ergy imparted, organ doses and effective dose were calculated. The mea
n entrance surface dose for the younger children was 0.10 mGy for the
frontal view and 0.16 mGy for the lateral view. For the older children
the values were 0.13 mGy for the frontal view and 0.30 mGy for the la
teral view. The mean absorbed dose to the total body for one examinati
on (one frontal projection + one lateral projection) was estimated to
be 0.02 mGy for the younger children and 0.03 mCy for the older.