Investigation of dose to patients in conventional cardiac intervention

Abstract

Objective To investigate patient doses undergoing routine interventional cardiology procedures in China. Methods A retrospective analysis was performed on 238 adult patients who achieved one of interventional procedures including coronary angiography (CAG), percutaneous coronary angioplasty (PTCA) and radiofrequency catheter ablation (RF). According to intervention operations, all cases were divided into three groups: CAG (77), PTCA (95) and RF (66). Data of four special metrics, peak skin dose (PSD), dose-area product (DAP), cumulative dose (CD), and fluoroscopy time (FT), these parameters were measured and collected for these procedures. Frequencies of high-dose cases (PSD>2 Gy and PSD>3 Gy) were specifically recorded. Third quartile of DAP distribution was used to establish dose reference level (DRL) and then DRL values in this study were compared with ones reported in literatures. Wallis Kruskal rank-sum test was used to compare radiation dose of patients undergoing different intervention procedures. The total correlation among CD, DAP and PSD was analyzed by Spearman method. Results For patients undergoing CAG,PTCA and RF procedure, the median PSDs were 0.24, 1.05 and 0.62 Gy, respectively.The median DAPs were 34.99, 94.53 and 36.33 Gy·cm2, respectively.The median CDs were 0.39, 1.27 and 0.36 Gy, respectively.The median FTs were 4.50, 15.31 and 13.40 min, respectively. The difference among procedures was statistically significant (χ2=105.083, 92.032, 115.509, 100.883, respectively, P 2 Gy, including 14 patients undergoing PTCA and 8 patients undergoing RF. There were 1.6% (22/238) patients with PSD>3 Gy, including 1 patients undergoing PTCA and 3 patients undergoing RF. The DRL for PTCA in this study is 133 Gy·cm2 and higher than that in literatures. The DRL for CAG in this study is 46 Gy·cm2 and slight lower than that in literatures. The DRL for RF in this study is 49 Gy·cm2. Conclusion Data from this study are in the range of most reported values for CAG and RF procedure, while higher than that obtained in some literatures for PTCA. Key words: Heart; Radiology, interventional; Radiation dose; Comparative study