Assessments of medical exposures during interventional radiology procedures

This study aims to contribute to the construction of a scenario regarding patient radiation exposure in Brazilian interventional radiology, aiming to provide data for the future drafting of specific legislation on interventional radiology because there is currently a lack of safety regulations for haemodynamics services in this country. Fourteen haemodynamics services in the states of Santa Catarina and Bahia were evaluated. The radiological devices were characterised through measurements of air kerma-area product, entrance surface air kerma (Ke), exposure time, spatial resolution (SR), low-contrast resolution and half value layer. During the evaluation of instrument parameters, several non-conformities were found according to current Brazilian regulations, with SR presenting the most critical situation. The results of the present study indicate the need for the optimisation of clinical practices in complex radiological procedures, although the overall results for the dose scenario in the present study revealed values similar to those reported in international publications. (authors)