Fluoroscopic frame rates: not only dose.

Abstract

AJR:203, September 2014 Selecting and using the fluoroscopic dose rate that optimizes the balance between aspects of image quality and patient dose is important to patient management. In this article, “dose” and “dose rate” are used in a generic sense. Most modern fluoroscopes provide a multitude of controls that affect the balance between images and dose. Other influences that affect imaging are the patient size, clinical task, and imaging geometry. Normal fluoroscopic dose rates are also constrained by regulatory limits. All of these factors interact with each other in complex and occasionally nonintuitive ways [1, 2]. This article discusses some of the consequences of changing the frame rate (frames per second) and dose rate (mGy/s). It also discusses aspects of image processing using recursive filtering and gap filling.