EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION OF ALGORITHMS USED TO ESTIMATE EFFECTIVE DOSE DURING INTERVENTIONAL RADIOLOGY PROCEDURES.

Area of Science:

• Medical Physics
• Radiation Protection
• Radiology

Background:

• Accurate effective dose assessment is crucial for personnel safety in interventional radiology (IR).
• Dual-dosemeter systems (above and below lead apron) are standard for IR radiation monitoring.
• Existing algorithms for combining dosemeter readings lack international consensus on optimal methodology.

Purpose of the Study:

• To experimentally validate the accuracy of various algorithms used for calculating effective dose in IR.
• To compare the performance of different dose calculation algorithms under realistic IR conditions.

Main Methods:

• Eight experimental irradiations simulating typical IR procedures were conducted.
• A water-equivalent phantom (RW3 layers) replaced the patient.
• Thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs) within an Alderson Rando phantom measured personnel effective dose.

Main Results:

• Most evaluated algorithms demonstrated a conservative bias in effective dose estimation.
• Algorithm accuracy was found to be influenced by multiple factors, limiting precise dose evaluation.
• No single algorithm proved universally superior across all tested scenarios.

Conclusions:

• Current algorithms for effective dose calculation in IR are generally too conservative.
• Achieving high precision in effective dose evaluation is challenging due to inherent variability and influencing factors.
• Further research may be needed to refine algorithms for more accurate radiation protection in IR.