Common sense in the diagnostic use of x-ray.

Abstract

The amount of exposure of a patient to ionizing radiation during diagnostic radiography was studied in a number of hospital patients. Measurements made on a wax phantom gave figures, in milliroentgens perfilm, for the dose of radiation received by the skin and by the gonads in various kinds of examination. Representative measurements on the phantom were then tested for accuracy by comparing them with corresponding measurements made on actual patients during examination of the urinary bladder and during pelvimetry. Agreement was sufficiently close to justify the continued use of the phantom for studies of exposure rates to ionizing radiation. The distinctions between one roentgen of local exposure and of whole-body radiation between irradiation of gonads and of the rest of the body and between somatic and genetic effects are emphasized. The danger of harm from the average diagnostic exposure to x-rays is insignificant compared with the danger of trying to practice medicine and surgery without their aid.