Assessment of radiology installations in Macedonia, Greece

Nine, small and large radiology installations in Macedonia, Greece using 40 generators and a total of 47 roentgen tubes were assessed and their work load was calculated. The results of quality control measurements in 39 of these (27 radiographic and 12 fluoroscopic tubes) are presented. The parameters measured were: (a) kvp, (b) radiation output, (c) timer accuracy, (d) field coincidence and (e) total filtering. For fluoroscopic equipment spatial resolution and radiation field alignment were also measured. Equipment exploitation seems to be very low, since more than half of the equipment was less than 8 years old, with a work load under 200 mA.min per week. The total work load was calculated to be about 4612 mA.min per week, corresponding to 123,960 patients. These were examined by 52 radiologists supported by 58 radiographers. Skin exposure was measured for fluoroscopy patients (2.8 +/- 2.7 R/mA per min), as well as for a set of routine radiographic examinations.