title: An audit of diagnostic reference levels in interventional cardiology and radiology: are there differences between academic and non-academic centres?
abstract: A wide variation in patient exposure has been observed in interventional radiology and cardiology. The purpose of this study was to investigate the patient dose from fluoroscopy-guided procedures performed in non-academic centres when compared with academic centres. Four procedures (coronary angiography, percutaneous coronary intervention, angiography of the lower limbs and percutaneous transluminal angioplasty of the lower limbs) were evaluated. Data on the dose-area product, fluoroscopy time and number of images for 1000 procedures were obtained from 23 non-academic centres and compared with data from 5 academic centres. No differences were found for cardiology procedures performed in non-academic centres versus academic ones. However, significantly lower doses were delivered to patients for procedures of the lower limbs when they were performed in non-academic centres. This may be due to more complex procedures performed in the academic centres. Comparison between the centres showed a great variation in the patient dose for these lower limb procedures.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Radiation Physics, University Hospital Centre and University of Lausanne, Grand-Pré 1, 1007 Lausanne, Switzerland. eleni-theano.samara@chuv.ch
authors.forename: E T
authors.initials: ET
authors.lastname: Samara
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aroua
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: De Palma
authors.forename: J-C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Stauffer
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: Ph R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Trueb
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stuessi
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Treier
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bochud
authors.forename: F R
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Verdun
mesh_terms: D000046:Academic Medical Centers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001822:Body Burden; D013504:Cardiovascular Surgical Procedures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D054869:Clinical Audit; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D015641:Radiography, Interventional / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011874:Radiometry / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013557:Switzerland