EFFECT OF PELVIC LEAD SHIELD ON ORGAN DOSES IN POSTERO-ANTERIOR CHEST RADIOGRAPHY.

Lead shields are commonly used in X-ray imaging to protect radiosensitive organs and to minimise patient's radiation dose. However, they might also complicate or interfere with the examination, and even decrease the diagnostic value if they are positioned incorrectly. In this study, the radiation dose effect of waist half-apron lead shield was examined via Monte Carlo simulations of postero-anterior (PA) chest radiography examinations using a female anthropomorphic phantom. Relevant organs for dose determination were lungs, breasts, liver, kidneys and uterus. The organ dose reductions varied depending on shield position and organ but were negligible for properly positioned shields. The shield that had the largest effective dose reduction (9%) was partly positioned inside the field of view, which should not be done in practice. Dose reduction was practically 0% for properly positioned shields. Therefore, the use of lead shield in the pelvic region during chest PA examinations should be discontinued.

The Use of Model-based Iterative Reconstruction to Optimize Chest CT Examinations for Diagnosing Lung Metastases in Patients with Sarcoma: A Phantom Study.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: This phantom study aimed to evaluate low-dose (LD) chest computed tomography (CT) protocols using model-based iterative reconstruction (MBIR) for diagnosing lung metastases in patients with sarcoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An adult female anthropomorphic phantom was scanned with a 64-slice CT using four LD protocols and a standard-dose protocol. Absorbed organ doses were measured with 10 metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor dosimeters. Furthermore, Monte Carlo simulations were performed to estimate organ and effective doses. Image quality in terms of image noise, contrast, and resolution was measured from the CT images reconstructed with conventional filtered back projection, adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction, and MBIR algorithms. All the results were compared to the performance of the standard-dose protocol. RESULTS: Mean absorbed organ and effective doses were reduced by approximately 95% with the LD protocol (100-kVp tube voltage and a fixed 10-mA tube current) compared to the standard-dose protocol (120-kVp tube voltage and tube current modulation) while yielding an acceptable image quality for diagnosing round-shaped lung metastases. The effective doses ranged from 0.16 to 2.83 mSv in the studied protocols. The image noise, contrast, and resolution were maintained or improved when comparing the image quality of LD protocols using MBIR to the performance of the standard-dose chest CT protocol using filtered back projection. The small round-shaped lung metastases were delineated at levels comparable to the used protocols. CONCLUSIONS: Radiation exposure in patients can be reduced significantly by using LD chest CT protocols and MBIR algorithm while maintaining image quality for detecting round-shaped lung metastases.

Actual and Potential Radiation Exposures in Digital Radiology: Analysis of Cumulative Data, Implications to Worker Classification and Occupational Exposure Monitoring.

Radiation worker categorization and exposure monitoring are principal functions of occupational radiation safety. The aim of this study was to use the actual occupational exposure data in a large university hospital to estimate the frequency and magnitude of potential exposures in radiology. The additional aim was to propose a revised categorization and exposure monitoring practice based on the potential exposures. The cumulative probability distribution was calculated from the normalized integral of the probability density function fitted to the exposure data. Conformity of the probabilistic model was checked against 16 years of national monitoring data. The estimated probabilities to exceed annual effective dose limits of 1 mSv, 6 mSv and 20 mSv were 1:1000, 1:20 000 and 1:200 000, respectively. Thus, it is very unlikely that the class A categorization limit of 6 mSv could be exceeded, even in interventional procedures, with modern equipment and appropriate working methods. Therefore, all workers in diagnostic and interventional radiology could be systematically categorized into class B. Furthermore, current personal monitoring practice could be replaced by use of active personal dosemeters that offer more effective and flexible means to optimize working methods.

Radiation exposure to foetus and breasts from dental X-ray examinations: effect of lead shields.

OBJECTIVES: Dental radiography may involve situations where the patient is known to be pregnant or the pregnancy is noticed after the X-ray procedure. In such cases, the radiation dose to the foetus, though low, needs to be estimated. Uniform and widely used guidance on dental X-ray procedures during pregnancy are presently lacking, the usefulness of lead shields is unclear and practices vary. METHODS: Upper estimates of radiation doses to the foetus and breasts of the pregnant patient were estimated with an anthropomorphic female phantom in intraoral, panoramic, cephalometric and CBCT dental modalities with and without lead shields. RESULTS: The upper estimates of foetal doses varied from 0.009 to 6.9 µGy, and doses at the breast level varied from 0.602 to 75.4 µGy. With lead shields, the foetal doses varied from 0.005 to 2.1 µGy, and breast doses varied from 0.002 to 10.4 µGy. CONCLUSIONS: The foetal dose levels without lead shielding were <1% of the annual dose limit of 1 mSv for a member of the public. Albeit the relative shielding effect, the exposure-induced increase in the risk of breast cancer death for the pregnant patient (based on the breast dose only) and the exposure-induced increase in the risk of childhood cancer death for the unborn child are minimal, and therefore, need for foetal and breast lead shielding was considered irrelevant. Most important is that pregnancy is never a reason to avoid or to postpone a clinically justified dental radiographic examination.

Fetal radiation dose in computed tomography.

The connection between recorded volumetric CT dose index (CTDI vol) and determined mean fetal dose (Df) was examined from metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor dose measurements on an anthropomorphic female phantom in four stages of pregnancy in a 64-slice CT scanner. Automated tube current modulation kept the mean Df fairly constant through all pregnancy stages in trauma (4.4-4.9 mGy) and abdomino-pelvic (2.1-2.4 mGy) protocols. In pulmonary angiography protocol, the mean Df increased exponentially as the distance from the end of the scan range decreased (0.01-0.09 mGy). For trauma protocol, the relative mean Df as a function of gestational age were in the range 0.80-0.97 compared with the mean CTDI vol. For abdomino-pelvic protocol, the relative mean Df was 0.57-0.79 and for pulmonary angiography protocol, 0.01-0.05 compared with the mean CTDI vol, respectively. In conclusion, if the fetus is in the primary beam, the CTDI vol can be used as an upper estimate of the fetal dose. If the fetus is not in the primary beam, the fetal dose can be estimated by considering also the distance of the fetus from the scan range.