According to the World Health Organization (WHO) evidence, obesity worldwide has more than doubled in the last thirty years [1]. In Slovenia, for example, more than 55 % of the population aged 15 and over was overweight in the year 2007 [2]. It has been established that patients with higher body weight need higher exposure parameters and are therefore significantly more exposed to higher doses of ionizing radiation [3-11]. The aim of the research was to determine the effect of higher body mass index (BMI)...

For 110 patients that were referred to the pelvic radiography height and weight was measured and imaging field size as well as DAP was obtained. Patients were divided into three group according to the BMI (normal, overweight and obese patients). Patients in the normal weight group had BMI < 24.99, the overweight group had BMI between 25.0 and 29.99, and the overweight patients had a BMI > 30.0. The imaging was performed with a general radiography unit with exposure parameters source to image distance (SID)...

43 patients based on the BMI results were in the normal weight group, 47 patients were in the overweight group and 20 patients in the obese group. The DAP value in the overweight patients group was 75 % higher than in the group with the normal weight. The DAP value in the group of obese patients the DAP was for 176 % higher than in the group with the normal weight (table 1). The increase of the effective dose was 55 % and 112 %...

The results show that the BMI has a great effect on the radiation dose received by the patients in pelvic radiography.

1. WHO (2017). Obesity and overweight. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/. <18.3.2017> 2. Statistični urad Republike Slovenije, 2009. Zdravje in zdravstveno varstvo v Sloveniji. http://www.nijz.si/sites/www.nijz.si/files/uploaded/pub_ehis_zdravje_in_zdravstveno_varstvo_v_sloveniji.pdf. <18.3.0217> 3. Ector J, Dragusin O, Adriaenssens B et al. (2007). Obesity Is a Major Determinant of Radiation Dose in Patients Undergoing Pulmonary Vein Isolation for Atrial Fibrillation. J Am Coll Cardiol 50(3): 234–242. 4. Yanch JC, Behrman RH, Hendricks MJ, McCall JH (2009). Increased Radiation Dose to Overweight and Obese Patients from Radiographic Examinations. Radiology 252(1): 128–139. 5. Majewska N, Stanisic MG, Blaszak...