Background/Introduction
The risk of exposure to radiation is a permanent topic on the agenda of global organisations like the ICRP (www.icrp.org)1,
the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation2 (UNSCEAR,
www.unscear.org),
the IAEA3 (www.iaea.org) and the World Health Organization (WHO,
www.who.int).
The role of these global organisations is crucial,
as they continuously evaluate and analyse the scientific literature about the effects of ionising radiation and also publish recommendations and guidelines on how to use ionising radiation in a safe way.
The ICRP system...
Description of activity and work performed
Following a objective and subjective image analysis,
a proposal of new exposure for chest,
abdomen and pelvis radiography for paediatric patients have been established figure 2,
3 and 4.
Considering the use of the new exposure criteria that have been proposed to the radiology department for chest,
abdomen and pelvis plain radiography,
two major benefits were expected: a) a harmonisation of practice; b) a significant reduction of ExT,
KAP and ESAK values between pre (phase 1)and post optimisation (post) results for chest,
abdomen and pelvis...
Conclusion and Recommendations
This work allowed proposing new and harmonised exposure parameters for chest,
abdomen and pelvis plain radiography,
facilitating dose reduction by up to 94% with image quality being maintained after a subjective image quality analysis using the Visual Grading Characteristics method.
Several corrections were made regarding the way the dose reduction technological features,
available on the X-ray equipment,
were used.
Improvements were introduced especially about guidance regarding the use of automatic exposure control and the ionisation chambers,
the antiscatter grid and the use of additional filtration,...
Personal/Organisational information
Graciano Paulo,
Medical Imaging and Radiotherapy Department,
Coimbra Health School,
Portugal
Coordinator of Ask Eurosafe Imaging
References
(1) International Commission on Radiological Protection.
(1996).
ICRP Publication 73.
Radiological Protection and Safety in Medicine.
Annals of the ICRP
(2) UNSCEAR.
(2013).
UNSCEAR 2013 Report Volume II - Effects of radiation exposure of children.
New York.
(3) International Atomic Energy Agency.
(2012).
Radiation Protection in Paediatric Radiology.
(IAEA,
Ed.).
Viena: IAEA.
(4) Kostova-Lefterova,
D.,
Taseva,
D.,
Hristova-Popova,
J.,
& Vassileva,
J.
(2015).
Optimisation of paediatric chest radiography.
Radiation Protection Dosimetry,
2,
1–4.
http://doi.org/10.1093/rpd/ncv119