Radiation doses to patients undergoing coronary angiography and percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty.

A detailed study of radiation doses received by 168 patients who underwent coronary angiography (CAG) and 102 patients who underwent percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) in two Greek hospitals is presented. Radiation dose was measured in terms of dose-area product (DAP). The contribution of fluoroscopy and cineradiography to the total DAP was examined separately for each radiological projection used in both procedures. Effective dose and doses to various organs were estimated with the help of the ODS-60 software. Total DAP was found to correlate linearly to fluoroscopy time and cine film length. Mean DAP values were found to be 80.8 +/- 28.0 Gy cm2 for CAG and 86.2 +/- 65.6 Gy cm2 for PTCAs, whereas the estimated mean values of effective dose were 20.9 +/- 7.5 and 23.2 +/- 18.1 mSv respectively. DAP to effective dose conversion coefficients were estimated to be 0.26 mSv/Gy cm2 for CAG and 0.27 mSv/Gy cm2 for PTCAs.