Doses Received by Patients during Thorax X-Ray Examinations

Document Type : Original Paper

Authors

1 - Department of Physics, Akwa Ibom State University, PMB 1167 Uyo, Nigeria

2 Department of Physics, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

Abstract

Introduction
Radiation exposures from diagnostic medical examinations are generally low and are almost always justified by the benefits of accurate diagnosis of possible disease conditions. Therefore, entrance skin dose (ESD), body organ dose (BOD), and effective dose (ED) from adult patients undergoing routine thorax posterior-anterior (PA) and thorax right lateral (RLAT) were estimated in University Hospital, Port Harcourt, Southern Nigeria.
Materials and Methods
Totally, 102 patients were considered in this work. Using software packages to carry out ESD, BOD, and ED is a recent resource in dosimetry and is being widely used in hospitals. The software used in this work was  CALDose_X 5.0. The software makes use of the technical exposure parameters and the tube output of the X-ray machine.
Results
The estimated ESD median values were 0.96 and 1.85 mGy for thorax posterior anterior (PA) and right lateral (RLAT), respectively. The highest BOD was in the adrenals (270 µGy) for thorax PA and Liver (263 µGy) for thorax RLAT. Similarly, ED for thorax PA and RLAT examination were 0.068 and 0.107 mGy, respectively.
Conclusion
It could be observed that examinations that imparted the highest ESD were thorax PA when compared with the established dose level. Therefore, these results call for quality assurance program (QAP) in diagnostic X-ray units in Nigeria hospitals.

Keywords

Main Subjects

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Iranian Journal of Medical Physics
Volume 9, Issue 4 - Serial Number 4
November and December 2012
Pages 245-251

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History

  • Receive Date: 16 September 2012
  • Revise Date: 16 March 2013
  • Accept Date: 02 February 2013

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