The impact of digital imaging on patient doses during barium studies

Barium studies performed on 10 digital and four non-digital fluoroscopic systems were monitored with dose-area product meters as part of a Regional Patient Dosimetry Audit programme. The data have been collected using a computer to read and reset the dose-area product meter and also to collect patient and examination details. A comparison of dose-area product measurements from digital and non-digital fluoroscopy units on over 10,000 barium studies is presented. The data have been corrected according to patient size. The mean size corrected dose-area product for a barium meal examination was found to be 7.62 Gy cm2 for a digital set compared with 15.45 Gy cm2 for a non-digital set with 2462 and 1308 patients included in each measurement series, respectively. Dose-area products were also a factor of approximately two lower for barium enema, barium swallow and barium follow-through examinations performed on digital systems.