Monitoring methods for skin dose in interventional radiology

Abstract

Interventional radiology makes an increasing use of X-ray for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. The dose received by the patient sometime exceeds the threshold value of deterministic effects, and this requires monitoring of the dose delivered to the patients. Delivered dose could be assessed through either direct or indirect methods. The direct methods use dosimeters that are placed on the skin during the procedure, whereas, the indirect methods are based on measured quantities derived from the equipment itself. Each method has its own limitations; however, the main concern is the ability to measure the dose more accurately due to complexity of the anatomical structures of the patient and the variable course of each procedure. This review article summarizes the principle and main advantages and disadvantages of each method. A comparison of the performances of each method for interventional fluoroscopy and radiography in its ability to monitor the patient's skin dose is provided.

How to Measure/Calculate Radiation Dose in Patients?

“…Direct dosimetry is time-consuming and therefore mostly limited to measurements on phantoms or patients in clinical studies. In clinical routine, indirect dosimetry with dose parameters derived from the modalities are used because of their easy availability [ 1 ].…”

“…in radiology, neuroradiology, cardiology or vascular surgery can be performed. Patient exposure in FGI depends on many patient, procedure and modality related parameters like kV, mAs, filtration, detector entrance dose rate, pulse rate, number of images, image processing, fluoroscopy time, geometric properties of the modality and field of view (FOV) [ 1 , 2 ]. The DICOM radiation dose structured report (RDSR) is available in most new angiographic systems and enables a more detailed analysis of all exposure parameters from fluoroscopy and radiographic images or cine series [ 3 ].…”

The use of a thyroid shield for intraoral anterior oblique occlusal views—a risk-based approach

“…Gafchromic film has been widely used throughout diagnostic radiology and interventional radiology for everything from quality control measurements to quantifying patient entrance skin dose. [18][19][20][21][22] It has also been used for dose measurements in intraoral radiography. 23,24 Such widespread use means that the optimal technique for using the film has been determined and shared.…”

Nanotechnology in radiation oncology: The need for implantable nano dosimeters for in-vivo real time measurements

“…2 Despite several Nanotechnology in radiation oncology: The need for implantable nano dosimeters for in-vivo real time measurements existing technologies such as small ionization chambers, silicon diodes, metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET), thermo-luminescent dosimeter (TLD), optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), diamond and films, none are completely suitable for real time in-vivo measurements. 3 The principle of detection of these dosimeters can be categorized into 4 types: air cavity, semiconductor, solid state and chemical, as shown in Figure 1. Ionization chambers are used to calibrate the linear accelerator and are not used as in-vivo dosimeters.…”