Medical imaging and technology have made a major breakthrough in the last decade, making it widely available for interventional radiologicalprocedures and thus resulting in an exponential increase in radiation use. The easy accessibility of modern X-ray medical imaging together with increased patient demand has resulted in its use outside the traditional radiology department by numerous other clinical specialties, such as interventional cardiology, orthopedic surgery, gastroenterology, dental medicine, etc. The application of the ALARA principle is mandatory and radiation dose must be minimized as to never...

This study was carried out at CHUPorto, within the scope of the Committee on Radiation Protection (CPCR) (Figure 1).[Fig 1] In interventional radiology, good practice recommends monitoring and dose registration in the clinical record of patients. Patients exposed to high radiation doses must be monitored and followed to evaluate the radiation resulting effects. Due to the increase of intervention procedures, which are often complex and sometimes involve a total exposure time of more than one hour, it has become essential for the CPCR to monitor...

Since 2018, the CPCR received 100 notifications from four specialties, Cardiology, Radiology, Vascular Surgery and Neuroradiology (Figure 4).[Fig 4] The largest number of notifications came from Cardiology, but the higher exposures and the higher fluoroscopy time occurred in Vascular Surgery (Figure 5,6). As mentioned in Scheme 2, not all patients had a follow-up. [Fig 5][Fig 6] After evaluating the Air Kerma (ESAK) and Entrance Skin Dose (ESD) and the latest complementary diagnostic exams with radiation, only 55 patients were referred to follow-up. However, eleven patients...

The attribution to the CPCR the competence to identify, follow-up and evaluate the exposures of marked patients undergoing fluoroscopy procedures allowed to raise the awareness of professionals for the careful management of the dose to the patient and its effects. The implementation of the procedures referred, allowed better monitoring of patients at risk, greater accuracy in monitoring doses. The CPCR remains committed to developing local DRL and optimizing low-dose protocols.

- Heilmaier, C., et al. (2017). Establishing Local Diagnostic Reference Levels in IR Procedures with Dose Management Software. Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology. 28(3): 429–441 - Zygmont, M., et al. (2017). Radiology Research in Quality and Safety: Current Trends and Future Needs. Acad Radiol. 24(3):263-272. - Mahesh, M. (2001a). The AAPM/RSNA physics tutorial for residents - Fluoroscopy: Patient radiation exposure issues. Radiographics. 21(4): 1033-1045. - Stecker, M. S., et al. (2009). Guidelines for patient radiation dose management. J Vasc Interv Radiol. 20 (7 Suppl):...

C. Machado: Nothing to disclose R. M. O. Pinto: Nothing to disclose F. M. S. M. Oliveira: Nothing to disclose I. Pinto: Nothing to disclose