engleski

Trigger levels for patient skin doses in interventional radiology- Overview of activity within EURADOS WG12 (SG2)

The growing use of fluoroscopy in interventional radiology (IR) procedures - in particular in cardiology - while offering large benefits to patients, significantly contributes to the radiation exposure of patients as well as operators. Thus there is a constant need for developing, identifying and promoting tools that can help the operators to reduce dose levels during IR procedures in order to prevent skin injuries. In some hospitals where IR procedures are performed, the use of the trigger levels (on-line indicators that alert the operator when the probability of skin injuries is becoming high) has already been implemented, but no guidelines/recommendations exist to identify the most appropriate trigger level. The main aim of the EURADOS WG 12 SG2 work is to evaluate the feasibility of establishing a European set of trigger levels for high-risk interventional procedures. The first step was to evaluate, through the data collected with the questionnaire, present situation among European countries about trigger levels, operators’ knowledge on their use and legislative aspects. The second step was to organize an intercomparsion of different types of dosimeters in order to compare and determine their suitability to measure skin doses in interventional radiology. Eight institutions from different countries participated in the intecomparison campaign. Dosimeters used by different institutions were TL detectors, TL foils and Gafchromic films. All the dosimeters were irradiated using different reference X-ray beam qualities in the Secondary Standard Laboratory. After intercomparison campaign the same dosimeters were used for measurements of skin doses in clinical conditions during selected IR procedures. Measurements were performed in order to evaluate the correlation between maximum skin dose (MSD) and cumulative air kerma (CK) at the interventional reference point. The measurements were focused on the PTCA (coronary angioplasty), NE (neuroembolizations) and CE (chemoembolizations) procedures which extensively use X-rays. All the data will be analyzed for the first trigger level evaluation. The lecture will give an overview of the activity and results about trigger levels in IR obtained within WG12 SG2.

EURADOS WG12; Interventional radiology; Trigger levels; Patient skin doses

nije evidentirano