Evaluation of patient radiation dose in routine radiographic examinations in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The aim of the study was to evaluate the radiation entrance skin dose (ESD) in most radiographic X-ray examinations in Taif City, Saudi Arabia. The study was carried out in 3 different hospitals in Taif City. These hospitals are indicated in this study as I, II, and III. In total, 221 images were acquired at the aforementioned hospitals by using two different techniques of dose assessment, DosCal software and the routine thermo-luminescence (TL) method. A data collection sheet was designed to record technical factors (kVp and mAs) and patient bio-data. The average of ESD for all examinations was 1.67 mGy for both methods, while the average tube voltage was 64.6 kVp. Additionally, the highest ESDs were associated with the examination of the lumbosacral and pelvis to be 7.4 and 6.3 mGy, respectively. The two methods of dose assessment were compared and a correlation coefficient of R2 = 0.93 was found. Although this study concluded that, the ESDs obtained in all examinations were lower than those mentioned in the previous studies, more studies in radiation dose field are required to establish a local diagnostic reference level.