Program Information

Automatic Monitoring of Accumulated Dose Indices From DICOM RDSR to Improve Radiation Safety in X-Ray Angiography

A Omar*, R Bujila , P Nowik , A Karambatsakidou , Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm

Presentations

SU-E-I-10 Sunday 3:00PM - 6:00PM Room: Exhibit Hall

Purpose: To investigate the potential benefits of automatic monitoring of accumulated patient and staff dose indicators, i.e., CAK and KAP, from DICOM Radiation Dose Structured Reports (RDSR) in x-ray angiography (XA).

Methods: Recently RDSR has enabled the convenient aggregation of dose indices and technique parameters for XA procedures. The information contained in RDSR objects for three XA systems, dedicated to different types of clinical procedures, has been collected and aggregated in a database for over one year using a system developed with open-source software at the Karolinska University Hospital. Patient weight was complemented to the RDSR data via an interface with the Hospital Information System (HIS).

Results: The linearly approximated trend in KAP over a time period of a year for cerebrovascular, pelvic/peripheral vascular, and cardiovascular procedures showed a decrease of 12%, 20%, and 14%, respectively. The decrease was mainly due to hardware/software upgrades and new low-dose imaging protocols, and partially due to ongoing systematic radiation safety education of the clinical staff. The CAK was in excess of 3 Gy for 15 procedures, and exceeded 5 Gy for 3 procedures. The dose indices have also shown a significant dependence on patient weight for cardiovascular and pelvic/peripheral vascular procedures; a 10 kg shift in mean patient weight can result in a dose index increase of 25%.

Conclusion: Automatic monitoring of accumulated dose indices can be utilized to notify the clinical staff and medical physicists when the dose index has exceeded a predetermined action level. This allows for convenient and systematic follow-up of patients in risk of developing deterministic skin injuries. Furthermore, trend analyses of dose indices over time is a valuable resource for the identification of potential positive or negative effects (dose increase/decrease) from changes in hardware, software, and clinical work habits.

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