Re: Angiogram Dose

[gfeldman@uci.edu (Gerald Feldman)]

Jim Barns writes:


>Hello all,
>
>One of my workers recently received an angiogram.  A small tube was 
>threaded up through a small incision in his leg to the heart region, a 
>radio-opaque die was injected into his blood stream, and "lots" of 
>x-rays taken.  I checked my standard references and found nothing 
>discussing the doses involved.
>
>Does anyone know how much dose he is likely to have received?
>
>
>Thanks,
>
>Jim Barnes, CHP
>Radiation Safety Officer
>Rockwell International, Rocketdyne Division
>
>
>

If you know the specific film techniques used (kV, MAS, tube to table 
distance, patient thickness, total beam filtration, etc.), the Handbook of 
Radiation Doses in Nuclear Medicine and Diagnostic X-Ray, by James G. 
Kereiakes and Marvin Rosenstein, CRC Press,  will allow you to estimate 
various organ doses.  Even if you don't know the specifics, with a little 
educated guessing and the nomographs in the book, you can approximate the 
dose.  Angiograms also involve a considerable amount of fluoroscopic 
exposure, so you will also want to know how long the physician stood on the 
exposure switch.  Most good facilities record techniques for each film 
exposure and the total fluoroscopy time, so the information you need should 
be available from the radiology department at the facility performing the 
examination.

Hope this helps. 
***************************************************************************
  Gerald Feldman, M.S.
  Radiation Safety Officer
  UCI Medical Center
  101 City Drive South, Rt. 107
  Orange, California  92668
  Voice:  (714) 456-5607;     FAX:  (714) 634-8639
  E-mail: gfeldman@uci.edu
***************************************************************************