Monte Carlo study of patient and medical staff radiation exposures during interventional cardiology.

Abstract The aim of this study is to assess the radiation exposure of the patient and the medical staff during interventional cardiology procedures. Realistic exposure scenarios were developed using the adult reference anthropomorphic phantoms adopted by the International Commission on Radiological Protection ( ICRP 110 Male and ICRP 110 Female ), and the radiation transport code G eant 4 (version 10.3 ). The calculated equivalent and effective doses were normalised by the simulated Kerma-Area Product (KAP), resulting in two conversion coefficients H T / KAP and E / KAP . To properly evaluate the risk of exposure, several dose-dependent parameters have been investigated, namely: radiological parameters (tube kilovoltage peak (kVp), type of projection, field size (FOV)), and operator positions. Four projections ( AP , PA , LAO 25 ° and RAO 25 ° ) were simulated for three X-ray energy spectra ( 80 , 100 and 120 kVp) with four different values of FOV ( 15 × 15 cm 2 , 20 × 20 cm 2 , 25 × 25 cm 2 and 30 × 30 cm 2 ). The results showed that the conversion coefficients values increase with increasing tube voltage as well as the FOV size. Recommended projection during the interventional cardiology procedures, whenever possible, should be the PA projection rather than AP projection. The most critical projection for the patient and the main operator is the RAO 25 ° projection and the LAO 25 ° projection respectively. The comparison of our results with the literature data showed good agreement allowing their use in the dosimetric characterization of interventional cardiology procedures.