Abstract
Cardiac catheterizations have contributed greatly to the treatment of heart diseases. However the radiation exposure to the patient is significantly higher compared with other radiological examinations. The objectives of this study are to evaluate the level of radiation dose received by the patients in order to introduce local diagnostic reference levels. A total of 50 consecutive patients who underwent cardiac catheterization using Kerma-area product (KAP) were measured. The average KAP +/- SD of therapeutic and diagnostic cardiac catheterization procedure was 46.4 Gy.cm(2) and +/- 21.1 Gy.cm(2) and 22.4 +/- 2 Gy.cm(2), respectively. The average fluoroscopic time +/- SD of cardiac catheterization was 24.1 +/- 16.8 minutes and 37.2 +/- 20.0 minutes. The estimated patient dose rate was found to be 125 mGy/min which considered higher than the recommended DRL for the continuous high mode fluoroscopy used in interventional radiology (100 mGy/min). The study concluded to the fact that the patients received relatively high dose than previously reported studies.