Radiation incidents and accidents in diagnostic radiology. What to do next in CT

Abstract

Radiation incidents in diagnostic radiology are rare and may not be as life threatening as in radiation oncology, yet it is equally important to devise plans of action to address radiation incidents in diagnostic radiology. This talk will discuss various measures medical physicists can do to address such situations with focus on CT studies. Radiation incidents can lead to deterministic effects such as hair-loss or skin erythema, which are rare but possible due to prolonged fluoroscopy procedures or CT scans (CT perfusion studies) due to incorrect settings. When radiation incidents occur, a physicist can do the following. First, physicist should record details of scan settings that have led to the radiation incident. Next, assess and make necessary changes to avoid future incidents. This should be followed by detail assessment of radiation exposure to patients (skin dose and organ dose) and work with the radiologists and other physicians to address the radiation events. Further, medical physicists can take precautions to avoid such incidents in future. Recently introduced ‘CT Dose Alert’ can be customized for each CT protocol such that incorrect settings that could lead to unintended high radiation exposure can be flagged prior to CT scan. This presentation will discuss in detail about the CT dose alert and CT dose notifications, which are key to avoid unintended radiation exposure to patients undergoing CT studies.