Doses received during interventional procedures

In the United Kingdom, radiation doses from medical sources make up 97% of the total collective effective dose to the population front man-made sources, due mainly to the large number of X-rays performed. The contribution of interventional radiology procedures to the collective effective dose us the U.K. is unknown as these procedures are not regularly monitored. The contribution of interventional to the population dose front medical exposures could be as high as 40% in some countries. Thus there is some uncertainty in the collective effective dose from medical sources in the U.K. Furthermore, there is no mention of interventional radiology by the national protocol. Radiation dose and risks from these procedures are therefore of interest. It is surprising, therefore that the effective dose to patients from many interventional radiology procedures has not been assessed in large scale regional studies. Though the frequency of the procedures is low, the dose for each examination can be high. Patient exposures are high because the screening times are often long and a large number of radiographic exposures are taken. It is therefore necessary to monitor the dose patients receive during these procedures. Interventional studies performed on twenty-two different fluoroscopy sets were monitored as part of a regional patient dosimetry programme. The data have been collected using a computer to read and reset the dose-area product meter and also to collect patient and examination details. Data is loaded onto the regional database at quarterly intervals. All the examinations performed in the room are monitored including many interventional procedures. (author)