Patient dosimetry in Interventional Radiology

An interventional radiological examination, compared to other radiological acquisitions, induce relatively high doses to the patients. In practice, the application of the ALARA principle for interventional radiology is not straightforward. These procedures may be very complex. Dose measurements in our department have confirmed that different types of procedures have very different dose values. In this text, we analyse and compare 2 typical angiographic examinations of the lower legs. They had been performed in 2 Belgian hospitals and they represent a typical procedure in a male patient. In both centers, all procedures of the lower extremities are performed following strict standards. There are remarkable differences between both centers, however. Large variations in doses for interventional procedures have been shown. As for dose and image quality management, we propose to focus first on typical procedures and analyse the examination into several parts. With a detailed description of the procedure, it is possible to calulate the Monte Carlo conversion coefficients. This will lead to a better understanding of the patient dose and it may provides us with some in depth knowledge about the dose-image quality relationship.