Impact Of Increasing Body Mass Index On Physician Radiation Exposure During Cardiac Catheterization

Introduction: Considering that obese patients emit greater amounts of scatter radiation during fluoroscopic procedures, it is possible that the growing obesity epidemic could adversely affect the occupational health of physicians performing cardiac catheterization. This study was performed to determine the impact of BMI on physician radiation exposure during cardiac catheterization. Methods: Real-time radiation exposure data were prospectively collected from dosimeters worn by physicians performing cardiac catheterization. Using data from an outer dosimeter (Hos) and body dosimeter (Hu), the physician effective dose per case (E) was calculated as E = 0.02 (Hos - Hu) + Hos. Patient radiation dose for each case was estimated using the dose-area product (DAP) automatically generated by the fluoroscopy system. Patient BMI was categorized using the NIH classification. DAP and effective dose are reported as median [25th, 75th percentile]. Results: Among 1,068 consecutive cardiac catheterizations, patient BMI wa...