Congress:
EuroSafe Imaging 2020
Keywords:
Radiation safety, Audit and standards, PACS, CT, Radioprotection / Radiation dose, Management, Computer applications, Action 4 - Dose management systems, Safety, Quality assurance, Prospective, Experimental, Performed at one institution
Authors:
D. R. Ortigoza, J. F. Orejuela, A. Granados, V. Mejía Quiñones
DOI:
10.26044/esi2020/ESI-03004
Background/introduction
Computed tomography (CT) is a non-invasive technique that uses ionizing radiation; and the increased use of this technique produced in the last two decades an increase in the dose of collective radiation. [1,2]. The biological effects associated with ionizing radiation can be classified into stochastic and deterministic effects. Stochastic effects refer to the probability of generating changes or damage to the DNA and the rigor increases if the radiation dose increases. In contrast, deterministic effects result in the death of a cell, tissue or organ [3]. In recent years different international organizations such as American College of Radiology (ACR), the European Society of Radiology (ESR), the International Atomic Energy Agency and the International Commission for Radiological Protection (ICRP) have implemented various strategies in conjunction with different sectors of the radiological community to optimize CT dose levels, under the philosophy of ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achievable) to make the most of the benefit and reduce the risks associated with ionizing radiation [4,5]. One of the strategies has been the establishment of reference levels, Diagnostic Reference Levels (DRL) in Europe and Dose Index Registry (DIR) in the USA, which are the maximum levels at which a study can be carried out [6,7].
In recent years, radiation dose index (RDIM) monitoring systems have been implemented, for the identification of studies that exceed the reference levels, auditing, and optimization of the dose generated by the radiation-emitting equipment[8,9]. The monitoring systems are classified in manual and automatic, in manual the registration of the data is carried out by the personnel, which can generate errors and induce slowness in the workflows; and the automatics are based on the analysis of DICOM headers, optical character recognition, or DICOM transfer or report modalities thus allowing integration with PACS systems. [7,8].
The aim of this study is to describe the design, development, and implementation of a real-time automated dose monitoring system of the scanning equipment of a radiology unit of a reference center in southwest Colombia.