An investigation on patient dose in screen-film diagnostic radiology in Lhasa City, Xizang Autonomous Region, China

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate patient dose in diagnostic screen-film radiographic examinations in the city of Lhasa, China. Seven out of the twenty-six hospitals registered with the Lhasa Health Bureau were included in the investigation. The entrance surface air Kerma (ESAK) of seven conventional screen-film radiology X-ray equipment in these hospitals was measured with a QA dosimeter in September 2012. The X-ray examinations were divided into three categories: PA (posterior-anterior) chest, upper/lower limb, and AP (anterior-posterior) lumbar spine. For each category, ESAKs were calculated and analyzed. The mean ESAK was 0.6 mGy for PA chest, 0.3 mGy for upper/lower limb, and 1.8 mGy for AP lumbar spine. In addition, the mean ESAK value recorded for PA chest X-ray examinations exceeded the corresponding value recommended by the International Atomic Energy Agency (0.4 mGy).

Keywords

radiation dosage / radiology / radiation protection / radiography/statistics & numerical data

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Acknowledgments

This survey was supported by Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Prevention and Control and Lhasa City Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

This work was supported in part by “Twelfth Five” Science and Education Health Project “Jiangsu Province Health Development Project with Science and Education” (No. ZX201109) and National Health Industry Research and Special Projects (No. 201002009).

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Xiang Du declares that he has no conflict of interest. All procedures were performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000.

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg