Effective dose to a patient undergoing coronary angiography.

Detailed data relating to patient dose have been acquired for 18, randomly chosen, patients undergoing coronary angiographies. During the procedure, dose-area product (DAP), kV and beam collimation were recorded for each projection. Total DAP, fluoroscopy time and number of cine frames were also noted. Patient effective doses were calculated using two different methods. Mean and median DAP values were 58 and 56 Gy.cm2 respectively, with a range between 26 and 125 Gy.cm2, screening time ranged from 3 to 37 min and cine frames from 1013 to 2344, depending on patient size, examination protocol and complexity of procedure. Our results correspond well with those obtained by other authors. Differences in the estimation of effective doses, due to the calculation method used and the approximation made, are discussed.