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List of Publications by Department for the Academic Year Investigation of Patient Dosimetry in Interventional Cardiology

Abstract

The International Basic Safety Standards for Protection against Ionizing Radiation and for the Safety of Radiation Sources (BSS) [1] require that medical practitioners who prescribe or conduct diagnostic radiological examinations “ensure that the exposure of patients be the minimum necessary to achieve the required diagnostic objective, taking into account norms of acceptable image quality established by appropriate professional bodies and relevant guidance levels for medical exposure;…”. Guidance levels are therefore required in the BSS as an important tool for optimization. They are an indication of “what is achievable with current good practice…”, but are “to be applied with flexibility to allow higher exposures if these are indicated by sound clinical judgment.” Routine Coronary Angiography is a relatively high dose diagnostic procedure. The results from a diagnostic procedure may indicate the need for an interventional examination, which has the potential for even higher patient dose therefore we have an obvious need for dose assessment and establishment Diagnostic Reference Levels for interventional cardiac procedures. In this study, patient dose assessment was performed by two methods, direct and indirect methods, for direct method Gafchromic films were used to measure the Peak Skin Dose for 13 selected patients underwent Percutaneous Transluminal Angioplasty procedures, the mean of the Peak Skin Dose for 13 patients was 0.94 Gy below the deterministic 2 Gy threshold, for indirect method a calibrated dose area product meter was used to measure Air Kerma-Area Product (PKA) of 463 standard sized patients who underwent different interventional examinations, the Multi linear Regression statistic method with Forward and Backward Steps Analysis was used to assure the validity of the collected data, Diagnostic Reference levels for Percutaneous Transluminal Angioplasty and Coronary Arteriography procedures were calculated by using the 75th percentile, effective doses for each patients were estimated by using the conversion factors that have been determined for specific X-ray views in a mathematical phantom. The quantities of the Diagnostic Reference Levels are: Air Kerma-Area Product (PKA – Gycm2), Fluoroscopic Time (FT – Min), the Number of images (Count of Frames), the Cumulative Dose at International Reference Point (CD at IRP- mGy) and the calculated Effective Dose (ED- mSv) were compared with the published data as Dimond RL, IAEA CPR study, HPA (NPRB), Swiss Study and Sentinel Study. At the end of this study recommendations were provided to be followed by the staff of Hammoud Hospital UMC - Cardiac Catheterization department during the interventional procedures which improve the commitment in the radiation safety program established in Hammoud Hospital – UMC and to ensure that the Quality Assurance Program follows the three cardinal principals: Justification - Optimization and Dose Limitation.

Author(s)

Rima Fawzi Zib

Coauthor(s)

Prof. Tarek Ibrahim, Dr. Hanna Balaa