PROPOSALS FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF NATIONAL DIAGNOSTIC REFERENCE LEVELS FOR RADIOGRAPHY FOR ADULT PATIENTS BASED ON...

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Radiological Protection
• Public Health

Background:

• Dose surveys are crucial for assessing patient radiation exposure during diagnostic imaging.
• Establishing diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) helps optimize radiation doses in medical radiography.
• Regional variations in radiological practices necessitate localized DRL considerations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To estimate typical patient doses for common radiographic examinations in six Russian regions.
• To propose preliminary regional diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) based on collected patient dose data.
• To evaluate methods for establishing national DRLs and their consistency with regional data.

Main Methods:

• Conducted dose surveys from 2009-2014, collecting adult patient data for common radiographic examinations.
• Estimated entrance surface dose and effective dose for typical patient doses.
• Calculated 75th percentiles of typical patient effective dose distributions for regional DRLs.
• Compared two methods for establishing national DRLs: pooled regional data versus median of regional 75th percentiles.

Main Results:

• Preliminary regional DRLs were proposed based on 75th percentiles of typical patient effective doses.
• Regional dose variations were within 30-50% for standardized examinations and 1.5 times for others.
• The pooled and median methods for national DRLs yielded results within 20% of each other.
• The pooled method was proposed for establishing Russian national DRLs in effective dose.

Conclusions:

• The pooled method is recommended for establishing Russian national diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) for effective dose in radiography.
• Regional DRLs can be established locally if radiological practices and dose distributions differ significantly.
• Standardized protocols contribute to lower variability in patient doses across regions.