Background: Practice of interventional cardiology
procedures such as Coronary angiography (CA) and
percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty
(PTCA) has largely increased in recent years and is
now changing to a matter of routine in many
hospitals. The purpose of this study was to measure
skin and organ doses in patients undergoing CA and
PTCA and to find a probable relation with cardiologist's
work experience. Materials and Methods: A
group of 57 patients who were admitted to Nour and
Chamran hospitals, Isfahan, Iran, either for CA (n=37)
or PTCA (n=20) was checked for skin, eyes and
thyroid gland radiation dose. Skin dose measurement
was carried out with thermoluminescent dosimeters
(TLD-100) placed at three different positions on the
patients' bodies. Also the thyroid and eye doses were
measured using the same procedure. Results: Mean
median, standard deviation and maximum doses for
these results are presented. Maximum values found
for skin in CA, PTCA, thyroid gland and eyes were
41.00, 73.90, 3.10 and 1.43 cGy, respectively.
Average exposure time for CA and PTCA was 4.2±2.6
and 10.8±8.2 minutes, respectively. Radiation dose
to the critical areas in each procedure in addition to
its relation to the type of procedure was studied.
Correlation between maximum skin dose and
cardiologists' work experience was also investigated.
Conclusion: 85% of the cases in CA and 78% of cases
in PTCA received maximum skin dose of lower than
25cGy well below the threshold of 2 Gy suggestions
for transient erythema. Iran. J. Radiat. Res., 2010
8 (3): 155-160
Tavakoli M, Monsef S, Hashemi M, Emami H. Assessment of patients skin dose undergoing coronary angiography and Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty (PTCA). Int J Radiat Res 2010; 8 (3) :155-160 URL: http://ijrr.com/article-1-646-en.html