Effects of AEC chamber selection on patient dose and image quality.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether manipulation of the standard automatic exposure control (AEC) chamber selections reduces the patient's entrance skin exposure (ESE) without compromising image quality.


METHODS
Data for density and radiation dose were gathered at 2 clinical locations by exposing abdomen and pelvis phantoms to radiation using 3 AEC chamber selection configurations. ESE (skin dose) was measured using a multipurpose dosimeter. The experiment included both film-screen and computed radiography (CR) systems.


RESULTS
For both phantoms, using the 2 outside chambers resulted in the lowest dose on the film-screen and CR systems. In general, optical density (OD) and exposure indicator (EI) remained within acceptable ranges and image quality was maintained using this chamber configuration. Using only the center chamber resulted in the highest dose increases and lowest image quality for film-screen and CR systems.


CONCLUSIONS
When performing anteroposterior (AP) abdomen and AP pelvis examinations, radiographers can reduce patients' ESE and maintain image quality by selecting the 2 outside AEC chambers. Further research on AEC chamber selection should be conducted for additional anatomical regions.
Hawking
Nancy
N
University of Arkansas-Fort Smith, AR, USA.
Elmore
Angie
A
D001822:Body Burden; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006801:Humans; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011835:Radiation Protection / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011856:Radiographic Image Enhancement / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011874:Radiometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000295:instrumentation*