Congress:
EuroSafe Imaging 2021
Keywords:
Interventional vascular, Radioprotection / Radiation dose, Catheter arteriography, Fluoroscopy, Arthrography, Dosimetry, Radiation safety, Dosimetric comparison
Authors:
P. Botella Faus, P. García Castañón, S. HONORATO HERNANDEZ, R. FAYOS-SOLA CAPILLA, P. Rodriguez Carnero, C. PRIETO MARTIN
DOI:
10.26044/esi2021/ESI-13994
Purpose or learning objective
Introduction
In interventional radiology, minimally invasive image-guided procedures with ionizing radiation are performed. These procedures have a high diagnostic performance and constitute a safer alternative to surgical treatment of many clinical diseases such as cardiovascular and neurological pathologies.
Directive 2013/59/Euratom (1) has been partially transposed into Spanish legislation Royal Decree 601/2019 (2), on justification and optimization of medical exposures. This decree specifies the need to establish reference levels for diagnostic procedures (DRLs) as well as their periodic review, especially for high dose practices such as interventional procedures.
In order to prevent unnecessarily high doses during medical exposures to patients, radiation protection measures shall be implemented. Establishing dose restrictions for patients is not recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) (3), as this could reduce diagnostic effectiveness. This highlights the importance of the justification of radiological examinations, the optimisation of protection and the use of Diagnostic Reference Levels.
The objective of this study is to update local DRLs in a Vascular Radiology Department from a dose management system exploitation, after partially upgrading the equipment.