Abstract
BackgroundThe new European Directive 2013/59/EURATOM requires that patients are informed about the risk associated with ionising radiation and that detailed information on patient exposure is included in the radiological report. This implies a revision of the routinely used dose indexes to obtain quantities related to individual exposure evaluable from acquisition parameters. Here we propose a new mammography dose index consistent with the average glandular dose (AGD).MethodsAn equation has been developed for calculating the average absorbed breast dose (2ABD). It depends on incident air kerma ka,i and on energy absorption coefficient μen; ka,i can be calculated for each anode-filter combination, based on kVp, mAs, the yield of the tube used Ytb, and the breast thickness d; μen depends on kVp and has been evaluated for each anode-filter combination. 2ABD has been compared to AGD evaluated by Dance or Wu methods, which represent the reference standards, for 20 patients of our university hospital.ResultsThe incident air kerma ka,i, calculated as a function of kVp, mAs, Ytb and d, was in good agreement with the same quantity directly measured: the relative uncertainty is < 0.10. The results of the comparison between 2ABD and AGD evaluated by both Dance and Wu methods appear to be consistent within the uncertainties.Conclusions2ABD is easily evaluable for each mammogram from the acquisition parameters. It can be proposed as a new suitable dose index, consistent with AGD, matching the requirements of the 2013 European Directive.
Highlights
The new European Directive 2013/59/EURATOM requires that patients are informed about the risk associated with ionising radiation and that detailed information on patient exposure is included in the radiological report
It is very important to take into account the dose absorbed by the breast during a mammographic exposure, trying to reduce the radiation dose absorbed by patients in every mammographic examination without impairing its diagnostic quality. This follows the guidelines contained in the European Directive 2013/59/EURATOM issued on 5 December 2013 [4], which gives challenging targets to all stakeholders in terms of justification and optimisation of the procedures using ionising radiation
Article 58 of the above mentioned directive [4] requires that patients are informed about the risk associated with ionising radiation and that detailed information on the exposure of the patient is included in the report of the radiological procedure
Summary
The new European Directive 2013/59/EURATOM requires that patients are informed about the risk associated with ionising radiation and that detailed information on patient exposure is included in the radiological report This implies a revision of the routinely used dose indexes to obtain quantities related to individual exposure evaluable from acquisition parameters. It is very important to take into account the dose absorbed by the breast during a mammographic exposure, trying to reduce the radiation dose absorbed by patients in every mammographic examination without impairing its diagnostic quality This follows the guidelines contained in the European Directive 2013/59/EURATOM issued on 5 December 2013 [4], which gives challenging targets to all stakeholders in terms of justification and optimisation of the procedures using ionising radiation. Article 58 of the above mentioned directive [4] requires that patients are informed about the risk associated with ionising radiation and that detailed information on the exposure of the patient is included in the report of the radiological procedure
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