Assessment on the interchangeability of personal effective dose algorithms in fluoroscopy-guided interventions using Bland-Altman analysis

Long exposure to radiation from fluoroscopy-guided interventions (FGIs) can be detrimental to both patients and radiologists. The effective doses received by the interventional radiology staff after performing 230 FGIs in a year were assessed by using double dosimetry and five various algorithms. The Shapiro-Wilk test revealed normally-distributed data (p < 0.01), while the significant correlation coefficients between the effective doses ranged between 0.88 and 1.00. As for the Bland-Altman analysis, both Niklason and Boetticher algorithms strongly supported the absence of statistical significance between the estimated effective doses. This portrays that the occupational doses received by the interventional radiology staff during FGIs fall within the acceptable limit regardless of the varied algorithms applied. In short, the Niklason and Boetticher algorithms appeared to be the more interchangeable ones for effective evaluation of doses. This is in view of their strong mutual correlations and excellent agreement. (authors)