Exposure to the maternal ovaries resulting from pregnancy radiographs as a function of ovarian location.

Abstract

Seven different ovary positions were selected on both right and left sides within an inhomogeneous phantom simulating the conditions of full-term pregnancy. Exposures were measured at these sites by a condenser ionisation chamber, for antero-posterior, postero-anterior and lateral radiography at three different X-ray qualities, namely, 81 kV with (1) inherent filter, and (2) with 2 mm Al added, and (3) 110 kV with 4 mm Al total filtration. With the antero-posterior projection the ovarian exposure using qualities (2) and (3) was reduced to 75–50 and 41–14 per cent respectively, as compared with (1). The exposure from postero-anterior radiography was lower by a whole order than that from antero-posterior views, irrespective of the quality. In the case of lateral views, exposure to the ovaries proximal to the tube was higher by two orders than that for the corresponding distal site. The use of the harder beams caused a notable reduction in exposure to the proximal sites as compared with unfiltered radiation. For the distal sites quality (2) caused rather less improvement, while for quality (3) there could be either a small increase or decrease in exposure as compared with (1).