[Evaluation of radiation doses during radiological tests]

The purpose of this document is to provide radiologists with a simple, but realistic means of determining the individual dose delivered to a patient during a radiological examination both in the region under investigation and at any other particularly sensitive organs. Fourteen types of examinations were considered corresponding to those most frequently carried out in France. The choice of examinations and methods of taking the films approaches as closely as possible, the average situations, and the frequency of different techniques is influenced by the results of a national study of radiodiagnostic examinations carried out in France in 1982. In the first section, the influence on the radiation dose of varying different physical parameters and techniques is analysed, with an aim of defining the limits of validity of the presented dosimetric values and the possible adaptation of these values to any individual situation, which is slightly different from these considered in this study. The second section describes the model used for determining the absorbed dose presented in the tables, concerning each type of examination, as well as bibliographic references referring to methods and results of determining the dose. The suggested calculation model may be used as a base for dose estimation for other types of examination.