Assessment of patients skin dose undergoing coronary angiography and Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty (PTCA)

Practice of interventional cardiology procedures such as Coronary angiography (CA) and percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) has largely increased in recent years and is now changing to a matter of routine in many hospitals. The purpose of this study was to measure skin and organ doses in patients undergoing CA and PTCA and to find a probable relation with cardiologist's work experience. A group of 57 patients who were admitted to Nour and Chamran hospitals, Isfahan, Iran, either for CA (n=37) or PTCA (n=20) was checked for skin, eyes and thyroid gland radiation dose. Skin dose measurement was carried out with thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLD-100) placed at three different positions on the patient's bodies. Also the thyroid and eye doses were measured using the same procedure. Mean median, standard deviation and maximum doses for these results are presented. Maximum values found for skin in CA, PTCA, thyroid gland and eyes were 41.00, 73.90, 3.10 and 1.43 cGy, respectively. Average exposure time for CA and PTCA was 4.2±2.6 and 10.8±8.2 minutes, respectively. Radiation dose to the critical areas in each procedure in addition to its relation to the type of procedure was studied. Correlation between maximum skin dose and cardiologist's work experience was also investigated. 85% of the cases in CA and 78% of cases in PTCA received maximum skin dose of lower than 25cGy well below the threshold of 2 Gy suggestions for transient erythema.