title: Radiation doses received in the United Kingdom breast screening programme in 2010 to 2012.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To review the radiation doses received by women attending the UK breast-screening programme between 2010 and 2012. To compare doses with previous years and to quantify the impact on dose of changing from analogue to digital imaging and to analyse doses by type of imaging system.
  
  
  METHODS
  Measurements of doses to samples of about 50-100 women attending for screening were collected across the whole of the UK breast-screening programme.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Data were collected for 87,122 exposures, using 449 X-ray sets, for 25,408 women. The average mean glandular dose (MGD) was 1.79 mGy for mediolateral oblique images and 1.58 mGy for craniocaudal images. The average MGD per two-view examination was 4.01 mGy for film-screen imaging and 3.03 mGy for direct digital radiography (DR) and 4.69 mGy for computed radiography.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The MGD to women attending breast screening has been reduced on average by about 25% where DR systems have replaced film-screen systems. The dose reduction was greatest for breasts with the largest compressed thickness. There are large variations in dose between the different models of DR system provided by different manufacturers. There should be further work to ensure that all DR systems are operated at the optimal dose level to ensure the best cancer detection while balancing the detriment caused by using radiation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Changes in the radiation dose in breast screening over time have been determined. Specifically, the impact on radiation dose of introducing different types of DR and computed radiography system into breast screening has been quantified.
authors.affiliation: 1 National Co-ordinating Centre for the Physics of Mammography, Medical Physics Department, Royal Surrey County Hospital, Guildford, UK.|2 Physics Department, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
authors.forename: Kenneth C
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3491-257X
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Young
authors.affiliation: 1 National Co-ordinating Centre for the Physics of Mammography, Medical Physics Department, Royal Surrey County Hospital, Guildford, UK.
authors.forename: Jennifer M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Oduko
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008327:Mammography; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011856:Radiographic Image Enhancement; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D006113:United Kingdom