Patient skin dose measurement and risk of deterministic effect during fluoroscopy cardiac procedures

This study aimed at assessing patient's peak skin doses (PSD) during fluoroscopy cardiac procedures and proposed a look up table to enhance patient's dose management. Perspex phantom and thermoluminescent dosemeters (TLD) were irradiated for different dose levels with X-ray equipment (Philips Azurion 7). It was found that PSD measures were higher than the kerma at the interventional reference point [K (IRP)] reported with factors 1.55, 1.75 and 2.88 for anterior posterior (AP0(o)), left anterior oblique (LAO45(o)) and right anterior oblique (RAO45(o)), respectively. The equations describing the correlation between the PSD measured kerma area product and cumulative air kerma were found with R-square values of 0.98 and 0.99, respectively. The statistical analysis shows a strong linear correlation between PSD and K (IRP) (P-value = 0.05). It was also found that 27% of the patients population considered in this work, received a skin dose higher than the threshold of deterministic effect of 2 Gy and a look up table with the equation of fitness were proposed to be implemented in the facility for K (IRP) higher than 500 mGy.