Radiation Protection Dosimetry Advance Access published online on February 29, 2008
Radiation Protection Dosimetry, doi:10.1093/rpd/ncn050
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A STUDY OF THE CORRELATION BETWEEN DOSE AREA PRODUCT AND EFFECTIVE DOSE IN VASCULAR RADIOLOGY
1 Department of Radiology, University Hospitals of Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
2 SCK-CEN, Radiation Protection, Dosimetry and Calibration, Boeretang 200, 2400 Mol, Belgium
3 Department of Radiology, Centre Hospitalier Jolimont-Lobbes, Rue Ferrer 159, 7100 Haine Saint-Paul, Belgium
4 Department of Radiology, UZ Brussel, Laarbeeklaan 101, 1090 Brussels, Belgium
5 Department of Radiology, CHU-Lg – CHR-Lg, Rue Forgent 13, 4000 Liège, Belgium
* Corresponding author: kristien.smans{at}uz.kuleuven.ac.be
Received August 16, 2007, amended January 2, 2008, accepted January 10, 2005
The purpose of the multi-centre study was to assess dose area product (DAP) and effective dose of patients undergoing angiography of the lower limbs in Belgium and to investigate the correlation between DAP and effective dose. DAP values were measured in 12 centres and compared with the national diagnostic reference levels (DRLs). The effective dose (E) was estimated by multiplying the DAP with case-specific conversion coefficients (CCs) that were calculated with Monte Carlo software MCNP5. As a model for the patient, a mathematical hermaphrodite phantom was used. Calculations showed that tube configurations and extra Cu filtration have a large influence on these CCs. Due to the use of Cu filtration, effective dose can be twice as high for comparable DAP values. Also the use of an over-couch tube configuration is a disadvantage when compared with the under-couch tube configuration. For centres working under-couch without the use of extra Cu-filtration, the DAP values correlate very well with effective dose (Spearman's rank correlation
; = 0.97). For these conditions, general CCs between DAP and E were calculated. They were 0.083 mSv Gy–1 cm–2 (ICRP 60) and 0.065 mSv Gy–1 cm–2 (ICRP 103).