Patient radiation exposure measurements during interventional procedures: A prospective study

This is a prospective study with the purpose of assessing patient radiation dose and stochastic risk (risk for fatal cancer) in a patient population undergoing interventional radiological (IR) procedures. Measurements were performed on 36 consecutive patients undergoing percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA, n = 18), transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS, n = 3), diagnostic angiography (DA, n = 6), arterial embolization (AE, n = 3), and hepatic neoplasm chemoembolization (HCE, n = 6). Kerma area product (KAP) was used as a measure of x-ray exposure to the patient. Mean KAP value per procedure was 79 +/- 50 Gy cm(-2) for PTA, 139 +/- 55 Gy cm(-2) for TIPS, 110 +/- 44 Gy cm(-2) for DA, 325 +/- 145 Gy cm(-2) for AE, and 150 +/- 76 Gy cm(-2) for HCE. Forty-six percent of total KAP value was attributed to fluoroscopy. In conclusion, we showed that a linear correlation between effective dose and KAP was found (r(2) = 0.84), which could be used for estimating patient effective dose using KAP measurements. Small changes to the number of digital frames acquired result in substantial change of the total KAP in interventional radiological procedures. Stochastic risk from IR procedures is quite low for the patient. Measuring KAP is a simple and accurate method, which provides the interventional radiologist with a good estimation of the patient's relative risk for stochastic effects.