Assessment of entrance surface dose (ESD) in some routine X-Rays examinations at the faculty of veterinary medicine Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria

Abstract

Radiography is an important part of diagnostic imaging in veterinary medicine. It relies on X-rays to diagnose diseases in form of images. The research aims to estimate the ESD for animals undergoing X-ray diagnostic examinations at the Digital Imaging Centre (DIC), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The concepts of radiological protection specified for human beings was observed and an indirect measurement of ESD was applied (mathematical formula). The result showed that the entrance surface dose (ESD) ranges for different examinations carried out on the animals were 0.97 - 39.89 mGy, 1.68 - 7.22 mGy, 5.04 - 10.61 mGy, 17.65 - 58.11 mGy and 12.78 - 38.41 mGy respectively for chest (AP), skull (AP), cervical spine (AP), lumbar spine and pelvis. The mean ESD values are slightly higher than the mean ESD from the related study specified for human beings. This indicates that there is a need for a periodic quality control program at the DIC, to reduce the animal doses to as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA).