Radiation doses received by patients in digital mammography: A first investigation in Morocco

Abstract

Introduction and objective Digital mammography is being introduced worldwide for breast cancer diagnosis and screening. While the technique is known to offer a good image quality–dose balance, its introduction in specific regions should be investigated. Present study focuses on the absorbed radiation dose, and more in particular on estimations of average glandular dose (AGD).The present work concerns a dosimetric study in digital mammography in Morocco. Materials and methods A dosimetric study was conducted in a Moroccan university hospital with system full-field digital mammography, Siemens Mammomat Inspiration. The average glandular dose of about hundred patients was calculated taking into account the entrance dose (tube output), half value layer and thickness of the compressed breast. Dose values were calculated with PMMA phantoms. Results The results showed that almost values were located below the achievable dose limit curve of the European Guidelines. For average thickness of 55 mm, the AGD is about 1.24 mGy for the Clinical–Caudal (CC) view and 1.32 mGy for the Mediolateral–Oblique (MLO) view with the same SD = 0.3. The results show also that the mean patients AGD is about 30% lower than that given by the PMMA. Conclusion The results show an increase in the average glandular dose as a function of breast thickness. Average and maximal doses are in line with values obtained in European studies. This study will now be performed in more Moroccan hospitals and the data obtained could be used to work at breast cancer screening in our country.