Estimation of doses for all types of patients in common diagnostic X-ray examinations

Objectives: Today, medical imaging is essential in any medicaldiagnosis. In 1990, the International Commission on RadiologicalProtection recommended the diagnostic reference level (DRL) tooptimize the X-ray examinations according to the principle ofoptimization to ensure the patient radiation dose in diagnosticimaging centers was not ignored.Methods: Twelve common radiography examinations wereconducted for all types of patients in all Ilam hospitals andimaging centers. A quality control check was performed on theequipment and the solid state dosimeters were used for estimatingthe Entrance Surface Air Kerma. Then Entrance Skin Dose of eachpatient was estimated. Finally, its third quartile (75%) waspresented as the DRL.Results: Therange of Entrance Skin Dose (ESD) is from 18 mGyto 0.001 mGy in the lumbosacral lateral (LAT) in fat adult andchest of an infant, respectively. Also, the range of DRL is from4.62 mGy to as low as 0.07 mGy in the lumbosacral of an adultand infant chest, respectively.Conclusion: All DRLs obtained in this study were compared toother reference countries and other cities in Iran. Almost all DRLsin Ilam are comparatively lower. One of the reasons may be due tothe execution of the QA program. Establishing DRL in a provinceand encouraging radiographers to follow these values and to carryout QA programs regularly in all radiology departments will causemore effective radiation protection in the population and patientdose.

Keywords:

Entrance skin dose , Diagnostic reference level , Radiography examination , Quality control