Workers involved in interventional cardiology procedures receive high eye lens dose if protection is not used. Currently, there is no suitable method for routine use for the measurement of eye dose. Since most angiography machines are equipped with suitable patient dosemeters, deriving factors linking staff eye doses to the patient doses can be helpful. In this study the patient kerma-area product, cumulative dose at an interventional reference point and eye dose in terms of Hp(3) of the cardiologists, nurses and radiographers for interventional cardiology procedures have been measured. Correlations between the patient dose and the staff eye dose were obtained. The mean eye dose was 121 µSv for the first operator, 33 µSv for the second operator/nurse and 12 µSv for radiographer. Normalised eye lens doses per unit kerma-area product were 0.94 µSv Gy⁻¹ cm⁻² for the first operator, 0.33 µSv Gy⁻¹ cm⁻² for the second operator/nurse and 0.16 µSv Gy⁻¹ cm⁻² for radiographers. Statistical analysis indicated that there is a weak but significant (p < 0.01) correlation between the eye dose and the kerma-area product for all three staff categories. These values are based on a local practice and may provide useful reference for other studies for validation and for wider utilisation in assessing the eye dose using patient dose values.

The article reports results from the largest international dose survey in paediatric computed tomography (CT) in 32 countries and proposes international diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) in terms of computed tomography dose index (CTDI vol) and dose length product (DLP). It also assesses whether mean or median values of individual facilities should be used. A total of 6115 individual patient data were recorded among four age groups: <1 y, >1-5 y, >5-10 y and >10-15 y. CTDIw, CTDI vol and DLP from the CT console were recorded in dedicated forms together with patient data and technical parameters. Statistical analysis was performed, and international DRLs were established at rounded 75th percentile values of distribution of median values from all CT facilities. The study presents evidence in favour of using median rather than mean of patient dose indices as the representative of typical local dose in a facility, and for establishing DRLs as third quartile of median values. International DRLs were established for paediatric CT examinations for routine head, chest and abdomen in the four age groups. DRLs for CTDI vol are similar to the reference values from other published reports, with some differences for chest and abdomen CT. Higher variations were observed between DLP values, based on a survey of whole multi-phase exams. It may be noted that other studies in literature were based on single phase only. DRLs reported in this article can be used in countries without sufficient medical physics support to identify non-optimised practice. Recommendations to improve the accuracy and importance of future surveys are provided.

With increasing use of CT in children and a lack of use of appropriateness criteria, there is a strong need to implement guidelines to avoid unnecessary radiation doses to children.

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The primary objective of this study is to investigate the actual mammography dose levels in Serbia and establish a baseline dose database for the future screening programme. The mean glandular dose (MGD) was assessed for standard size breast substituted by 45 mm polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) phantom and imaged under typical clinical conditions at 30 screen-film mammography facilities. Average MGD was (1.9 +/- 1.0) mGy, with a range of 0.12-5.2 mGy. These results were used for the calculation of the initial diagnostic reference levels in mammography in Serbia, which was set to 2.1 mGy for a standard breast. At some facilities, high doses were observed and the assessed MGD was supplemented by a patient dose survey. MGD was measured for 53 women having a diagnostic mammography in cranio-caudal (CC) and mediolateral oblique (MLO) projections at the largest mammography facilities in Serbia. The parameters recorded were: age, compressed breast thickness, tube potential (in kV), tube loading (in mAs) and the MLO projection angle. The average MGD per image was 2.8 mGy for the CC projection and 4.3 mGy for the MLO projection. Dose to breast was compared with dose for PMMA phantoms of various sizes, assessed at the same facilities. The results have indicated that phantom dose values can assist in setting optimisation activities in mammography. Both phantom and patient dose values indicated unnecessary high doses in facilities with an extremely high mammography workload. For these facilities, urgent dose-reduction measures and follow-up actions were recommended.