title: Evaluation of patient dose in some mammography centres in Iran.
abstract: High diagnostic sensitivity and specificity while maintaining the least dose to the patient is the ideal mammography. The objective of this work was to evaluate patient dose and image quality of mammograms to propose corrective actions. The image quality for 1242 patient in 7 mammography facilities in Tehran city was evaluated based on selected image quality criteria using a three-point scale. Clinical image quality, the entrance surface air kerma, the average glandular dose and optical density of films for standard PMMA phantom of 4.5 cm thickness were evaluated. The results showed that up to 72 % of mammograms were in good condition to be diagnosed, and only about 3.4 % of the images were unacceptable or with suboptimal quality. The entrance surface air kerma values were in the range of 3.8-10.5 mGy, average glandular dose 0.5-1.8 mGy and optical density of films 0.74-2.03. The image quality evaluation after correction actions, periodic image quality evaluation and using the correct equipment certainly will improve patient dose.
authors.affiliation: Nation Radiation Protection Department, Iranian Nuclear Regulatory Authority, PO Box 14155-4494, Tehran, Iran. rpaknyat@yahoo.com
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Paknyat
authors.forename: E Rostam Pour
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Samarin
authors.forename: N Ahmadi
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Jeshvaghane
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Paydar
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fasaei
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Karamloo
authors.forename: H R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Khosravi
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Deevband
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D008327:Mammography; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D011786:Quality Control; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011857:Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted