What is it about?
This study was carried out on entrance skin dose (ESD) (Radiation) measurement and evaluation (for all age groups) at the State Specialist Hospital, Okitipupa, Ondo State, Nigeria. Entrance skin doses for randomly selected patients between 0-4 years, 5-9 years, 10-17 years and above 18 years old undergoing X-ray chest (Poster Anterior) examinations were measured and evaluation of the source-to-skin distance (SSD) records for the patients during the x-ray chest examinations were carried out. The mean ESD reported for chest PA projections were 66.43 µGy, 105.10 µGy, 215.76 µGy and 291.81 µGy respectively for age ranges 0 - 4 years, 5 - 9 years, 10 - 17 years and above 18 years. The ESD values reported in this present study were same with the NRPB recommendations of year 2000 of 50 µGy for new born to 1-year-old, 70 µGy for 5 years and 120 µGy for 10 years old children. The values reported for age 1 to 4 years were lower than 0.1 mGy recommended5 and the mean ESD for age 5 to 9 years for chest PA examination was 0.11 mGy which is lower than the recommended 0.12 mGy. However, other values reported in this present study were compared with the guidance levels set by the International regulation bodies and were found to be within safe limits and they do not pose any significant health risk to the patients of all age ranges or the health workers. The effective radiation doses (ERDs) for all the age groups were computed, and by comparisons, it was found that the radiation risk factors (RRFs) are relatively low.
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Why is it important?
The application of medical imaging in medical procedures has led to improvements during diagnosis and treatment of numerous medical conditions in children and adults. There are many modalities of medical imaging procedures, each of which uses different technologies and techniques. Medical imaging which includes computed tomography (CT), fluoroscopy and radiography (conventional X-ray); all make use of ionizing radiation to generate images of the body. Ionizing radiation is a form of radiation that has enough energy to potentially cause damage to DNA and may elevate a person’s lifetime risk of developing cancer. Radiation safety, monitoring and assessment have now become issues of great concern, since at high doses, its effects to humans are numerous.
Perspectives
In Nigeria and many other parts of the world, medical fitness examinations which often include X-ray examinations are requested either at the point of admission into higher institutions, job employments, or during treatment of one ailment or the other. Chest radiographs are used to screen for job related lung disease such as mining where workers are exposed to dusts. Millions of X-ray examinations are undergone at every point in time all through the year by people thereby increasing the exposure to ionizing radiation. Chest radiography is the most common of all X-ray examinations. Chest radiography, commonly chest X-ray, is a projection radiograph of the chest used to diagnose condition affecting the chests, its contents and nearby structure. Chest radiographs are the most common examinations taken as a therapeutic tool for many clinical conditions such as pneumonia and congestive heart failure.
Dr. Abiola Olawale Ilori
Ondo State University of Science and Technology
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Entrance Skin Dose (Radiation) Measurement and Evaluation (for all age groups) at the State Specialist Hospital, Okitipupa, Nigeria, Open Science Journal, June 2018, Open Science Journal,
DOI: 10.23954/osj.v3i2.1658.
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