Radiation Protection Dosimetry Advance Access originally published online on January 18, 2005
Radiation Protection Dosimetry 2005 113(2):162-167; doi:10.1093/rpd/nch450
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Radiation doses to patients from enteroclysis
1 Medical Physics Unit, General Hospital KonstantopoulioAgia Olga, 3-5 Agias Olgas, Nea Ionia, 142 33 Athens, Greece
2 Radiology Department, General Hospital KonstantopoulioAgia Olga, 3-5 Agias Olgas, Nea Ionia, 142 33 Athens, Greece
3 Computed Tomography Department, General Hospital KonstantopoulioAgia Olga, 3-5 Agias Olgas, Nea Ionia, 142 33 Athens, Greece
4 Medical Physics Department, Medical School, University of Athens, 75 Mikras Asias, 115 27 Athens, Greece
* Corresponding author: pekatman{at}otenet.gr
Received September 24, 2004, amended November 20, 2004, accepted December 11, 2004
The purpose of this study was to determine the patient doses during enteroclysis and compare them with the available bibliographical data. For 14 enteroclysis examinations, the dose-area product (DAP) meter readings, fluoroscopy time, number of radiographs and exposure data were recorded. From these data, the fluoroscopy and radiography contributions to DAP, the entrance surface dose (ESD) and the effective dose (E) for each examination were estimated. The mean DAP was 81 Gy cm2 and the mean fluoroscopy time was 19.5 min. The fluoroscopy contribution to DAP was 77% and 8.7 films were acquired in each examination on average. The mean ESD and E were estimated to be 428 mGy and 21 mSv, respectively. The mean DAP and fluoroscopy time calculated in this study are quite high when compared with those reported in the literature, suggesting that the examination technique should be reviewed and the ways to reduce patient exposure without compromising the diagnostic quality should be acquired.