Effectiveness of Radiation Protection Caps for Lowering dose to the Brain and the Eye Lenses

Purpose This work was designed to study the effectiveness of radiation protection caps in lowering the dose to the brain and the eye lens during fluoroscopically guided interventions. Materials and Methods Two types of radiation protection caps were examined with regards to their capacity to lower the radiation dose. One cap is equipped with lateral flaps, the other one is not. These caps were fitted to the head of an anthropomorphic Alderson-Rando (A.-R.) phantom. The phantom was positioned aside an angiographic table simulating the position of the first operator during a peripheral arterial intervention. One of the brain slices and both eyes of the A.-R. phantom were equipped with thermoluminescence dosimeters (TLDs). Results The analysis of the data showed that the cap without lateral flaps reduced the dose to the brain by 11,5–27,5 percent depending on the position within the brain. The cap with lateral protection flaps achieved a shielding effect between 44,7 and 78,9 percent. When evaluating the dose to the eye, we did see an increase of dose reduction from 63,3 to 66,5 percent in the left eye and from 45,8 to 46,8 percent in the right eye for the cap without lateral protection. When wearing the cap with lateral protection we observed an increase of dose reduction from 63,4 to 67,2 percent in the left eye and from 45,8 to 50,0 percent in the right eye. Conclusion Radiation protection caps can be an effective tool to reduce the dose to the brain and the eyes.