Radiation exposure in vascular angiographic procedures

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate dose reduction in vascular angiographic procedures by using fluoroscopy capture instead of digital subtraction angiography frames for documentation.

Materials and methods: A total of 764 consecutive vascular interventional procedures performed over a period of 1 year were retrospectively analyzed with respect to the fluoroscopy time and the resulting dose-area product (DAP), the DAP of the radiographic frames, and the overall DAP.

Results: A total of 70% of the total DAP was a result of the acquisition of radiographic frames, leaving only 30% being applied by fluoroscopy.

Conclusions: Fluoroscopy capture should be used for documentation whenever possible. A registry of radiation exposure should not only comprise a sufficiently large number of interventions but also different intervention types to allow the development of interventional reference levels.