Simple modification to closed circuit TV installation to allow remote control screening.

Abstract

Although film badge monitoring has shown that the amount of radiation received by radiologists during normal working is acceptably low, all would agree that if it can be further reduced this would be desirable. The use of closed-circuit television has further reduced the radiation dose, and during the past year or so equipment has been produced, or is being developed, to allow remote control screening by television to be practised. With this apparatus the radiologist can dispense with lead rubber gloves and apron and carry out his screen examination behind a protective screen at some distance from the patient. This equipment, however, is expensive and is not as yet widely available. One of the radiographic rooms in The London Hospital is equipped with a Watson's Autonome 5 coupled to a Cinelix image intensifier. This combination proved very satisfactory for barium meal work (and also for such procedures as myelography, micturating cystography and other examinations requiring screening). The writer wished to explore the possibilities of remote control screening, and the manufacturers were asked if the controls normally sited at the side of the explorator could be duplicated on a second control panel placed within the radiographer's protective cubicle. This proved a simple modification and was carried out by running a cable from the junction box of the Autonome 5 to a point within the cubicle adjacent to the lead glass window.