Occupational eye lens doses in interventional cardiology. A multicentric study.

New European regulation regarding radiological protection of workers and more specifically the new occupational dose limit for the eye lens recently reduced to 20 mSv yr(-1) may affect interventional cardiologists. This paper presents a set of measurements of occupational doses performed in five interventional cardiology centres and then compared with the new dose limit. The measurement of occupational doses was performed over the apron at chest level using electronic dosemeters recording H p(10). In one of the centres, scatter dose at goggles was also measured with optically stimulated luminescence dosemeters calibrated in terms of H p(0.07). An average H p(10) over the apron of 46 µSv/procedure was measured for cardiologists. Lower doses were noted in other professionals like second cardiologists, nurses or anaesthetists. Procedures for valvular and other structural heart diseases involved the highest occupational doses, averaging over 100 µSv/procedure. Important differences in occupational doses among centres may be indicative of different radiation protection habits. The new occupational dose limit for the eye lens is likely to be exceeded by those among the interventionalists who do not use protection tools (ceiling suspended screen and/or goggles) even with standard workloads.

Benefits of an automatic patient dose registry system for interventional radiology and cardiology at five hospitals of the Madrid area.

The purpose of this article is to present the results of connecting the interventional radiology and cardiology laboratories of five university hospitals to a unique server using an automatic patient dose registry system (Dose On Line for Interventional Radiology, DOLIR) developed in-house, and to evaluate its feasibility more than a year after its introduction. The system receives and stores demographic and dosimetric parameters included in the MPPS DICOM objects sent by the modalities to a database. A web service provides a graphical interface to analyse the information received. During 2013, the system processed 10 788 procedures (6874 cardiac, 2906 vascular and 1008 neuro interventional). The percentages of patients requiring clinical follow-up due to potential tissue reactions before and after the use of DOLIR are presented. The system allowed users to verify in real-time, if diagnostic (or interventional) reference levels are fulfilled.

A national programme for patient and staff dose monitoring in interventional cardiology.

A national programme on patient and staff dose evaluation in interventional cardiology made in cooperation with the haemodynamic section of the Spanish Society of Cardiology has recently been launched. Its aim is to propose a set of national diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) for patients as recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection and to initiate several optimisation actions to improve radiological protection of both patients and staff. Six hospitals have joined the programme and accepted to submit their data to a central database. First to be acquired were the quality control data of the X-ray systems and radiation doses of patients and professionals. The results from 9 X-ray systems, 1467 procedures and staff doses from 43 professionals were gathered. Provisional DRLs resulted in 44 Gy cm(2) for coronary angiography and 78 Gy cm(2) for interventions. The X-ray systems varied up to a factor of 5 for dose rates in reference conditions. Staff doses showed that 50 % of interventional cardiologists do not use their personal dosemeters correctly.