Radiation protection of patients during CT fluoroscopy

CT fluoroscopy provides pseudo real-time cross sectional imaging and has been used in our clinic for biopsies, drainage and pain control. In the fluoroscopic configuration the radiologist stands in the room adjacent to the table as in conventional angiography. Because of concerns regarding patient doses, measurements were made to estimate doses. Effective doses were calculated using the method of Huda and the data of NRPB. It was found that as far as the patient is concerned, two minutes of CT fluoroscopy gave a similar effective dose as a standard abdomen CT exam. As in other CT scanners, the scattered dose decreases rapidly away from the radiation plane and is 1 mGy per minute at 10 from the image plane. (author)