Patient radiation doses in interventional cardiology in the U.S.: Advisory data sets and possible initial values for U.S. reference levels

Abstract

Sufficient data exist to suggest possible initial benchmarks for patient radiation dose for certain interventional cardiology procedures in the U.S. Our data suggest that patient radiation dose in these procedures is not optimized in U.S. practice.

Radiation dose in coronary angiography and intervention: initial results from the establishment of a multi‐centre diagnostic reference level in Queensland public hospitals

“…The dose area product meter (DAP meter) housed within the X‐ray tube was calibrated on all systems within the 12 months prior to the data collection for each CCL. A variation of ±25% was deemed acceptable and was in line with similar studies . CCL X‐ray equipment in Queensland Health facilities (QH) is serviced by equipment vendors on a regular basis and the X‐ray output of the systems is measured annually by QH radiation physicists to ensure compliance and quality assurance.…”

“…The investigation and publication of a DRL for coronary angiography has been performed in the UK every 5 years since 1992 . This has subsequently been followed by studies in Europe and the United States . Studies in the UK have found an incremental drop in radiation dose since they started investigating and reporting radiation dose …”

“…Normalising the dose data to a reference patient weight is difficult with a large number of facilities. Most multi‐centre studies have not elected to do this and this was not performed as part of this study. A higher P KA value than some of the literature may be the result, due to the higher median patient weight of 83 kg seen in this study.…”

Approaches to Enhancing Radiation Safety in Cardiovascular Imaging

“…In a recent survey of US practice, ≈7% to 10% of patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention or combined diagnostic and percutaneous coronary intervention procedures met the criteria for postprocedure radiation follow-up. 53 Such patients should be offered postprocedure education regarding their radiation exposure and be provided with appropriate follow-up. …”

Interventional Cardiology-Eight Years of Practice: Do Increased Experience and Technological Evolution Lead to Undertaking More Difficult Cases and Higher Patient Doses?

“…Several studies have been published, in the field of Interventional Cardiology (IC) procedures, focused on factors that may influence patient radiation exposure [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. Radiation involves a probability of carcinogenic effects (the risk of stochastic effects), the actual probability increasing with the magnitude of the dose.…”