Congress:
EuroSafe Imaging 2019
Keywords:
Action 2 - Clinical diagnostic reference levels (DRLs), Action 4 - Dose management systems, Action 10 - EuroSafe Imaging Stars, Radioprotection / Radiation dose, CT, Radiation safety, Quality assurance
Authors:
H. M. Karakas, B. Cavli, H. Tekin, R. B. Pekar, C. Ozturk, L. Demirci, U. özdamarlar, K. Katsari
DOI:
10.26044/esi2019/ESI-0080
Background/introduction
Computed tomography (CT) has been used in medicine since 1970s and is now firmly established as an essential tool for medical diagnosis and therapy.
On that context,
there has been a marked and steady increase in numbers and the use of CT in the past two decade (1),
and it,
now,
accounts for more than half of the medical radiation exposure of the European population in 2007-2010 (2).
Increased collective dose levels that are mainly due to CT examinations are known to increase the incidence of late stochastic effects seen as malignancies,
teratogenic disorders and mutations (3).
CT technique -apart from its adverse effects that were briefly described above,
provide great benefits to patients when medically justified and properly conducted.
However,
the associated radiation exposures have to be monitored and optimized,
in view of their potential to cause harmful health effects.
This duty is clearly sated in international BSS Req.
38 as “Registrants and licensees and radiological medical practitioners shall ensure that protection and safety is optimized for each medical exposure” (4).
Monitorization and optimization of patient doses are indispensable in high-quality and value-based radiology work-flow,
but they are only meaningful in the context of comprehensive quality improvement systems on dose management.
Such systems encompass whole imaging cycle ( Fig. 1 ) and incorporate leadership,
technology and practices to lower patient doses according to ALARA principle.
In this presentation,
an overview of implementation of dose management system and evaluation of initial dose levels (in a newly etablished Istanbul Sancaktepe Sehit Prof.
Dr.
İbrahim Varank Education and Research Hospital (a.k.a. Sancaktepe) -a EuroSafe Imaging Star (*****) center ( Fig. 2 ),
were presented to show how legacy of a succeessful dose optimization project enabled new sites to beat DRL targets.