Interventional procedures are increasing in developing countries, not only for adults but also for pediatric patients. The situation with respect to staff protection is considered generally acceptable, but this is not the case for patient protection. Many patients exceeded the dose threshold for erythema. A substantial number (62%) of percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty procedures performed in developing countries in this study are above the currently known dose reference level and thus could be optimized. Therefore, this study has significance in introducing the concept of patient dose estimation and dose management.

Despite the fact that doses to paediatric patients from computed tomography (CT) examinations are of special concern, only few data or studies for setting of paediatric diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) have been published. In this study, doses to children were estimated from chest and head CT, in order to study the feasibility of DRLs for these examinations. It is shown that for the DRLs, patient dose data from different CT scanners should be collected in age or weight groups, possibly for different indications. For practical reasons, the DRLs for paediatric chest CT should be given as a continuous DRL curve as a function of patient weight. For paediatric head CT, DRLs for a few age groups could be given. The users of the DRLs should be aware of the calibration phantom applied in the console calibration for different paediatric scanning protocols. The feasibility of DRLs should be re-evaluated every 2-3 y.

No abstract

The assessment of eye lens doses for workers during interventional radiology (IR) procedures was performed using a new eye lens dosemeter. In parallel, the results of routine individual monitoring were analysed and compared with the results obtained from measurements with a new eye lens dosemeter. The eye lens doses were assessed using Hp(3) measured at the level of the eyes and were compared with Hp(10) measured with the whole-body dosemeter above the lead collar. The information about use of protective measures, the number of performed interventional procedures per month and their fluoroscopy time was also collected. The assessment of doses to the lens of the eye was done for 50 IR workers at 9 Lithuanian hospitals for the period of 2012-2013. If the use of lead glasses is not taken into account, the estimated maximum annual dose equivalent to the lens of the eye was 82 mSv.

Patients receiving identical radiation treatments experience different effects, from undetectable to severe, on normal tissues. A crucial factor of radiotherapy related side effects is individual radiosensitivity. It is difficult to spare surrounding normal tissues delivering radiation to cancer cells during radiotherapy. Therefore, it may be useful to develop a simple routine cytogenetic assay which would allow the screening of a large number of individuals for radiosensitivity optimizing tumor control rates and minimizing severe radiotherapy effects with possibility to predict risk level for developing more severe early normal tissue adverse events after irradiation. This study was conducted to assess the correlation between in vitro radiosensitivity of peripheral blood lymphocytes from cancer patients who are undergoing radiotherapy using the cytokinesis-block micronucleus (CBMN), G2 chromosomal radiosensitivity assays, and normal tissue acute side effects. The CBMN and G2 chromosomal radiosensitivity assays were performed on blood samples taken from cancer patients before radiotherapy, after first fractionation, and after radiotherapy. Acute normal tissue reactions were graded according to the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group/European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer. This study suggests that there is a correlation between higher frequency of micronuclei after in vitro irradiation of blood samples and higher degree of normal tissue reactions. In addition, higher number of chromatid breaks was observed in patients with more severe normal tissue reactions. This pilot study included only 5 cancer patients, and therefore, further studies with a bigger cohort are required to identify radiosensitive patients.