title: Occupational dose constraints in interventional cardiology procedures: the DIMOND approach.
abstract: Radiation fields involved in angiographic suites are most uneven with intensity and gradient varying widely with projection geometry. The European Commission DIMOND III project addressed among others, the issues regarding optimization of staff doses with an attempt to propose preliminary occupational dose constraints. Two thermoluminescent dosemeters (TLD) were used to assess operators' extremity doses (left shoulder and left foot) during 20 coronary angiographies (CAs) and 20 percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasties (PTCAs) in five European centres. X-ray equipment, radiation protection measures used and the dose delivered to the patient in terms of dose-area product (DAP) were recorded so as to subsequently associate them with operator's dose. The range of staff doses noted for the same TLD position, centre and procedure type emphasizes the importance of protective measures and technical characteristics of x-ray equipment. Correlation of patient's DAP with staff shoulder dose is moderate whereas correlation of patient's DAP with staff foot dose is poor in both CA and PTCA. Therefore, it is difficult to predict operator's dose from patient's DAP mainly due to the different use of protective measures. A preliminary occupational dose constraint value was defined by calculating cardiologists' annual effective dose and found to be 0.6 mSv.
authors.affiliation: Medical Physics Department, Konstantopoulio Agia Olga Hospital, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Virginia
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Tsapaki
authors.forename: Sophia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kottou
authors.forename: Eliseo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vano
authors.forename: Tuomo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Komppa
authors.forename: Renato
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Padovani
authors.forename: Annita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dowling
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Molfetas
authors.forename: Vassiliki
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Neofotistou
mesh_terms: D015906:Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001822:Body Burden; D002309:Cardiology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017023:Coronary Angiography / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005062:European Union / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000032:analysis* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009928:Organ Specificity; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011835:Radiation Protection / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015642:Radiology, Interventional / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D012782:Shoulder; D013819:Thermoluminescent Dosimetry / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data