Magnitudes y unidades para dosimetría a pacientes en radiodiagnóstico e intervencionismo / Quantities and units for patient dosimetry in diagnostic and interventional radiology

Because diagnostic and interventional radiology procedures represent one of the main sources of irradiation by ionizing radiation in the population, it has become a priority to become familiar with the quantities and units that account for patient dosimetry. There are countless documents and international recommendations on names, concepts, definitions and areas of application for various quantities and units used in patient dosimetry, in interventional and diagnostic radiology procedures. However, national legislation is not updated in this regard and does not provide, in any of its documents, an updated glossary that enables finding this type of information quickly and precisely. Therefore, this review paper presents in a didactic way and in plain language, the main quantities and units to be used in the dosimetry of patients undergoing diagnostic and interventional radiology procedures.

Debido a que los procedimientos de radiodiagnóstico e intervencionismo representan una de las principales fuentes de irradiación a la población por radiaciones ionizantes, se vuelve prioritario conocer las magnitudes y unidades que dan cuenta de la dosimetría a los pacientes. Existen innumerables documentos y recomendaciones internacionales sobre nombres, conceptos, definiciones y campos de aplicación para diversas magnitudes y unidades utilizadas en la dosimetría de pacientes en procedimientos de radiodiagnóstico e intervencionismo. Sin embargo, la legislación nacional no se encuentra actualizada en este sentido y no contempla en ninguno de sus documentos, un glosario actualizado que permita encontrar en forma rápida y precisa este tipo de información. Por lo anterior, este trabajo de revisión presenta de manera didáctica y en un lenguaje sencillo, las principales magnitudes y unidades que se deben utilizar en la dosimetría de pacientes sometidos a procedimientos de radiodiagnóstico e intervencionismo.

Comparing in vitro activity of tigecycline by using the disk diffusion test, the manual microdilution method, and the VITEK 2 automated system.

Tigecycline is a broad spectrum antibiotic having activity against multiresistant isolates. In vitro susceptibility testing is difficult to perform with the use of traditional microbiological techniques. The aim of this study was to evaluate the disk diffusion test with three different Mueller-Hinton agar brands, and the Vitek 2 automated system in comparison with the standard broth microdilution method against 200 gram-negative isolates (Escherichia coil, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterobacter cloacae, Serratia marcescens and Acinetobacter baumannii). Among Enterobacteriaceae, the Becton Dickinson agar had the lowest rate of minor (32.5%) and major errors (3.8%). No very major errors were found. For A. baumanni, the rate of minor and major errors was lower. A high rate of agreement (94%) was found between the broth microdilution method and the Vitek 2 system. Our results show that there are important differences between agars used for the disk diffusion test, and that Vitek 2 is a valid tool for susceptibility testing in clinical laboratories.