Medical imaging: Contribution toward background radiation and human exposure

Abstract

Annual public exposure from background radiation is about 2.8 mSv which comes from both natural and manmade sources. The medical applications of ionizing radiation contribute around 98% of the manmade sources of background radiation. The annual per caput dose rose from 0.35 to 0.62 mSv by the worldwide usage of radiation diagnostic examinations. Based on the published reports, the diagnostic examinations – computed tomography (CT) scan and cerebral angiography are high (7.4 mSv and 9.3 mSv, respectively) in the average effective dose. In our study, we measured the entrance surface dose at different anatomical locations using thermoluminescence dosimeter in patients who underwent CT examinations and neurointerventional radiology procedures. The measured dose values range between 0.70 and 518.12 mGy for CT and 0.99 and 777.31 mGy for interventional procedures. Thus, X-radiation based procedures delivered a considerable amount of radiation dose to the patients. To minimize the risks of developing any health effects, safety measures should be taken to reduce the dose without compromising the image quality.

Keywords

• Computed tomography examination
• entrance surface dose
• medical radiation exposure
• neurointerventional procedures