title: Prospective Evaluation of the radiologist’s hand dose in CT-guided interventions.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Assessment of radiologist's hand dose in CT-guided interventions and determination of influencing factors.
  
  
  METHODS
  The following CT-guided interventions were included: Core biopsy, drainage, periradicular therapy, and celiac plexus neurolysis. The hand dose was measured with an immediately readable dosimeter, the EDD-30 (Unfors, Sweden). The default parameters for CT fluoroscopy were 120 kV, 90 mA and a 4 mm slice thickness. All interventions were performed on a 16-slice CT unit (Aquilion 16 Toshiba, Japan). The tumor size, degree of difficulty (1 - 3), level of experience and device parameters (mAs, dose-length product, scan time) were documented.
  
  
  RESULTS
  138 CT-guided interventions (biopsy n = 99, drainage n = 23, pain therapy n = 16) at different locations (lung n = 41, retroperitoneum n = 53, liver n = 25, spine n = 19) were included. The lesion size was 4 - 240 mm (median: 23 mm). The fluoroscopy time per intervention was 4.6 - 140.2 s (median: 24.2 s). The measured hand dose ranged from 0.001 - 3.02 mSv (median: 0.22 mSv). The median hand dose for lung puncture (n = 41) was slightly higher (median: 0.32 mSv, p = 0.01) compared to that for the liver, retroperitoneum and other. Besides physical influencing factors, the degree of difficulty (p = 0.001) and summed puncture depth (p = 0.004) correlated significantly with the hand dose.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The median hand dose for different CT-guided interventions was 0.22 mSv. Therefore, the annual hand dose limit would normally only be reached with about 2000 interventions.
authors.affiliation: Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, University Magdeburg.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rogits
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jungnickel
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Löwenthal
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kropf
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Nekolla
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Dudeck
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pech
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wieners
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ricke
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006225:Hand / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000528:radiation effects / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010820:Physicians / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D015641:Radiography, Interventional / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011874:Radiometry / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*