Patient dose in interventional radiology: a European survey

Patient doses for a few common fluoroscopy-guided procedures in interventional radiology (IR) (excluding cardiology) were collected from a few radiological departments in 13 European countries. The major aim was to evaluate patient doses for the basis of the reference levels. In total, data for 20 procedures for about 1300 patients were collected. There were many-fold variations in the number of IR equipment and procedures per population, in the entrance dose rates, and in the patient dose data (total dose area product or DAP, fluoroscopy time and number of frames). There was no clear correlation between the total DAP and entrance dose rate, or between the total DAP and fluoroscopy time, indicating that a number of parameters affect the differences. Because of the limited number of patients, preliminary reference levels were proposed only for a few procedures. There is a need to improve the optimisation of IR procedures and their definitions and grouping, in order to account for their different complexities.