Radiation burden of patients due to mammography

A mammographic dose survey performed in the Czech Republic is based on evaluation of MGD for cranio-caudal (CC) and medio-lateral oblique (MLO) view, which are the standard mammographic projections. The study started in the year 2005, aims of the study are to establish new diagnostic reference levels (DRL) with regards to compressed breast thickness (current DRL is 3 mGy for a 45 mm PMMA breast phantom with 50% glandularity and Mo/Mo combination of filter and anode material) and to analyze an influence of different X -ray machine types, image receptors and imaging techniques on doses to patients. The calculation of mean glandular dose is based on a formalism suggested by Dance and accepted by European Commission. Mean glandular dose is computed from incident air kerma (without backscatter) using tabulated conversion coefficients for different breast thickness, beam quality and patient age. (authors)