Assessment of Entrance Skin Dose and Effective Dose of common diagnostic X-ray examinations in Federal Teaching Hospital Gombe, North-Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

Recently, there has been a wide application of radiation in medicine. This may have adverse effect of radiation protection regulations if not properly observed. A balance must be struck between the benefits of improving human health, and the risks associated with ionizing radiation exposure by radiation workers, patients and the general public. This study evaluated the entrance skin dose (ESD) and patient effective dose (ED) during X-ray diagnostic examinations at Federal Teaching Hospital Gombe, North-eastern, Nigeria. Twenty (20) patient's data were collected for this study. Five (05) most common performed X-ray diagnostic examinations are Anterior Posterior AP (chest), Posterior Anterior (PA) chest, Anterior Posterior (AP) Abdomen, Posterior Anterior (PA) Skull and Lateral (LAT) Skull. The ESD was determined indirectly through measurement of tube potential (kVp), exposure setting or current (mAs) and Film Focus Distance (FSD) which were then used to analyze the ESD while the effective dose (ED) was obtained by addition of the weighing factor multiplied by the equivalent dose. The mean of entrance skin dose and the effectual dose of chest (PA, AP), abdomen (AP) and skull (AP, LATERAL) were found to be 0.466 mGy , 0.509 mGy, 1.027 mGy, 0.810 mGy, 0.928 mGy and 0.040 mSv, 0.030 mSv, 0.006 mSv, 0.001 mSv  and 0.001 mSv  respectively. The entrance skin dose and effective dose values obtained in this study showed that X-ray diagnostic examinations carried out at Federal Teaching Hospital Gombe were lower compared to reference dose values reported in most literatures. The value of patients absorbed dose undergoing X-ray diagnostic examination at Federal Teaching Hospital Gombe is in agreement with ALARA concepts.