[Status of Diagnostic X-ray Equipment in the Republic of Korea, 2022]

With the continuous development of medical industry, diagnostic X-ray machines have also made a lot of progress. It is used as an essential means of diagnosing diseases. The installation status of X-ray machines is also on the rise nationwide. Therefore, the need for safety management is also increasing proportionally. A continuous increase has been observed in the number of diagnostic X-ray machines in the Republic of Korea, from 94,187 in 2020 to 101,646 in 2022. Classification based on the types of X-ray equipment showed that the portion of general equipment with an integrated tube-high voltage (HV) generator used in radiography or fluoroscopy accounted for the largest proportion (23,611, 23.2%), followed by general equipment with separate tube-HV generator (21,847, 21.5%), intra-oral equipment (17,283, 17.0%), equipment for panoramic imaging (6,731, 6.6%), dental computed tomography (15,987, 15.7%), equipment for bone mineral densitometry (9,727, 9.6%), mammography equipment (3,868, 3.8%), and whole body CT (2,592, 2.6%). District-based categorization revealed that Gyeonggi had the largest number of diagnostic X-ray machines (23,229, 22.9%), while Sejong had the smallest number (590, 0.6%). Based on the period of use, 35.1% of total equipment (n=35,648) had been used for equal or less than 5 years. As the number of diagnostic X-ray equipment increases, the importance of safety management in medical radiation will also increase and more effort will be required for using radiation safely.