Dose indices of radiation to skin in fluoroscopically guided invasive cardiology procedures.

Tissue injury depends on the extent as well as the intensity of the assault. It would be helpful to develop skin dose indices that are more descriptive of the skin area receiving radiation above a threshold value of potential injury. For monitoring radiation exposure to patients, radiochromic film was placed close to the skin of a patient undergoing cardiac catheterization procedures.

Skin entrance radiation dose in an interventional radiology procedure.

Monitoring of skin entrance radiation exposure in lengthy interventional procedures has been recommended because of the potential for skin injury. Fluoroscopy duration and dose-area product (DAP) are readily available real-time measurements. It would be of interest to study the correlation of these parameters and skin entrance radiation.

Measurement of dose-area product with GafChromic XR Type R film.

Many of the newer X-ray machines are equipped with electronic means to provide dose-area product (DAP) information. For machines without that ability, an alternative method is to record radiation on a film that can handle a large amount of cumulative exposure. The use of GafChromic XR Type R film was investigated for this purpose by placing it at the X-ray tube assembly to record the radiation in interventional radiological procedures.

Energy dependence of photostimulable phosphor.

In this study, phantoms were used to illustrate the dependence of photostimulable phosphor's characteristic response on beam quality. These phantoms, consisting of sheets of acrylic and aluminum, represented an extremity, an abdomen, a skull and a chest. Images were taken with 50 to 65 kVp, 60 to 110 kVp, 65 to 80 kVp and 70 to 120 kVp, respectively.