Designing a shield to reduce radiation dose during mammography: Dosimetric evaluation

This paper presents a method to reduce radiation exposure during mammography by analysing the doses to ipsilateral and contralateral breasts and to adjacent organs by evaluating material-dependent shielding performance.  Six target-filter combinations (Mo-Mo, Mo-Rh, Rh-Rh, Rh-Mo, W-Mo, W-Rh) were tested by measuring the doses delivered to the breasts and adjacent organs, with the contralateral (opposite side) breast shielded. The shield was designed to have a simple (┓,┎) shape for ease of use in actual clinical settings, using lead, copper, bismuth, and barium sulphate (BaSO4) as materials for shield configuration. The dosimetric data revealed that the highest absorbed dose was exhibited by the target filter combination of Rh/Rh, followed by W/Rh, W/Mo, Rh/Mo, Mo/Rh, and Mo/Mo. Additionally, the radiation dose was reduced by 54–55%, with the average absorbed dose on the contralateral breast reduced from 0.655 to 0.359 mGy. All four shielding materials used in the experiments were analysed for the shielding effect.   This Using a shield during screening mammography would alleviate concerns about the mammography-induced risk of breast cancer and secondary effects.