The radiation absorbed dose to very low birth weight infants from 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose was investigated. Ten newborns undergoing clinical positron tomography lung imaging were included in this study. Two consecutive 45-min dynamic scans immediately following intravenous injection of fluorodeoxyglucose were acquired; the first was over the head, and the second was over the chest. Time-activity curves were generated for the brain, heart wall, lungs, and, when visible, the kidneys. The cumulated activity measurements obtained were for the entire organ masses; these masses were much smaller than the corresponding organ masses for the newborn mathematical model. Patient-specific dosimetry yielded average doses of 2.5 x 10(-1) mGy MBq(-1) for the brain, 6.8 x 10(-1) mGy MBq(-1) for the heart wall, 2.2 x 10(-1) mGy MBq(-1) for the kidneys, and 4.4 x 10(-1) mGy MBq(-1) for the lungs. The effective dose was estimated to be 2.1 x 10(-1) mSv MBq(-1), which is half that previously published for newborns but still an order of magnitude higher than that for adults.