Quality control of diagnostic radiology devices in the selected hospitals of Ahvaz city

Background: X-ray, is one of the oldest, and yet the most widely used form of medical photographing. X-ray is a valuable tool to diagnose and examine many diseases such as arthritis, spinal injuries, pneumonia, bronchitis and even cancer. Running a quality control program of the radiology devices can reduce the absorbed dose in the patients. The aim of this study is to take the quality control test on the diagnostic radiology devices in the selected hospitals of Ahvaz city. Materials and Methods: In this study various parameters of quality control programs were measured by the researchers, including voltage accuracy, accuracy of irradiation time, voltage repeatability, repeatability of irradiation time, output repeatability of X-ray tube, conformity of the optical field with radiation field, being the radiation field perpendicular to the film, the maximum leakage of tube and the light intensity of collimator. Results: Evaluating the voltage accuracy revealed that the radiology devices in the hospitals (A) and (C) fell below an acceptable standard. An Assessment of the maximum leakage of the tube showed that all selected radiology devices were of a good standard. Assessing the conformity of optical field with radiation field also showed that radiology devices fell below acceptable standard in the hospitals (D) and (C). Conclusion: In this study, all radiology devices in the selected educational hospitals of Ahvaz city made errors in some quality control tests except the radiology devices of hospital (B). The devices are required to be calibrated and their defects to be repaired.