REDUCTION OF PATIENT DOSE IN DIGITAL RADIOGRAPHY

Radiation doses from diagnostic radiology are the largest contribution to the collective dose from all man-made sources of radiation. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to analyse the conditions of patient. s overexposure during X-ray chest front projection (PA) and chest lateral projection (LAT) procedures and to apply methods of dose reduction suitable for X-ray department. Two hundred and seventy seven radiographic images of PA and LAT chest projections were analysed and three novel dose reduction methods were applied. The results of dose-area product (DAP) measurements showed that dose-area product values decreased almost two times for PA projection and 20 % for a lateral projection after the application of the dose reduction methods. Measurements of the patient, s entrance skin dose (ESD) for LAT projection shows that ESD was reduced by 34 %.