Clinical StudiesRadiation Doses in Interventional Radiology Procedures: The RAD-IR Study Part I: Overall Measures of Dose
Section snippets
Case and Subject Selection
Instances of procedures were included in the study if the subject underwent one of the medically indicated interventional radiology procedures listed in the first column of Table 1, the procedure was performed in an interventional radiology suite that had previously been registered into the study, and informed consent had been obtained for the procedure. For subjects who underwent more than one interventional procedure on different occasions, each procedure was eligible for inclusion as a
Physics Evaluations
During the course of the project, 48 comprehensive physics evaluations and 581 periodic consistency checks were reported for the 12 fluoroscopic units included in the study. For the comprehensive physics evaluations, the normalized data sets yielded a mean of 1.03 (95% CI: 1.00–1.05) for the fluoroscopic data and a mean of 0.93 (95% CI: 0.90–0.96) for the fluorographic data. For the periodic consistency checks, the normalized data sets yielded a mean of 1.00 (95% CI: 0.98–1.02) for the
DISCUSSION
The dose data in this study represent current practice among radiologists at selected academic medical centers in the United States. The RAD-IR Study was designed and is intended to provide data on “real-world” doses for a variety of interventional radiology and interventional neuroradiology procedures, with no attempt to standardize either the technical factors for each fluoroscopic unit or the way in which each procedure was performed.
The procedures included in this study were chosen for one
CONCLUSIONS
The dose data in the RAD-IR Study represent current practice among interventional radiologists and interventional neuroradiologists at selected academic medical centers in the United States. These data are not intended as a guide to the lowest practically achievable dose or as a guideline or indication of the highest “acceptable” dose. It is also essential to understand that radiation effects are only one factor to be considered in planning and conducting interventional radiology and
APPENDIX 1: GLOSSARY OF RADIOBIOLOGY TERMS
This glossary is provided for the convenience of the reader. It is not intended to be authoritative. These brief definitions may not match precisely the formal ICRP definitions of these terms.
Air kerma: The energy released in a small volume of air when it is irradiated by an x-ray beam. For diagnostic x-rays, air kerma is equivalent to the dose delivered to the volume of air in the absence of scatter. Kerma is measured in grays (Gy).
Biologic variation: With respect to radiation, the differences
Acknowledgment
The authors thank Henry Krakauer, MD, PhD, for his careful and helpful review of the manuscript.
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Cited by (0)
None of the authors have identified a potential conflict of interest.
Supported in part by a grant from the Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology Research and Education Foundation. The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Navy, the Department of Defense, or the Department of Health and Human Services.
- 1
Current address: Department of Radiology, Hahnemann University Hospital, Drexel College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA.
- 2
Current address: Division of Neuroendovascular Surgery, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL.
- 3
Current address: Trinity Imaging and Intervention, Trinity Clinic, Tyler, TX.