Assessment of maximum entrance skin dose of patients undergoing cardiac interventional procedures and its correlation with other dosimetric parameters

Background: In recent years, the number of complex coronary angiography (CA) is increasing rapidly. These procedures have significant contribution in medical exposure of the general population. Exposure of patients to high doses of x-rays could cause deterministic effects on the skin. Therefore, assessment of radiation dose of patients is of great importance. The aim of this study is to assess maximum entrance skin dose (MESD) of patients who undergo interventional cardiology procedures and to determine correlation between MESD and other relevant dosimetric parameters.Materials and Methods: MESD of 32 patients who underwent coronary angiography procedures were measured by an array of TLDs. In this study, a tray made of Perspex was used to hold the TLDs. The tray consisted of 5 rows and 6 columns apart. Its long axis was perpendicular to the long axis of the table, top edges of the tray were approximately equal to the patient’s shoulders. Results: Our results revealed a linear relation between DAP values and MESDs (R2=0.89; p = 0.00). A relationship between MESD and fluoroscopy time was significant with a correlation factor of R2=0.89. Also, a relation between MESD and the number of frames per second in a weak manner was evident (R2=0.23).Conclusion: Our results indicate that recorded DAP values and fluoroscopy time can be used to estimate MESDs of patients undergoing coronary fluoroscopy procedures.