A study on patients' radiation doses from interventional cardiac procedures in Tabriz, Iran.

Interventional cardiac procedures produce a large amount of X-ray exposures to the patients in comparison with other conventional X-ray imaging procedures. In the current study, the exposure parameters of 580 patients referred to a cardiac angiography department were recorded. The mean values of total kerma-area product (KAP) were 18.6 Gy cm2 for coronary angiography (CA) and 55 Gy cm2 for percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA). The mean fluoroscopy time was 3.2 and 11.6 min, respectively, for CA and PTCA. The patients' exposure parameters during electrophysiological studies were 15.5 min for mean fluoroscopy time and 33.9 Gy cm2 for total KAP. For paediatrics, the mean fluoroscopy time of 5.4 min and total KAP of 2 Gy cm2 were recorded. Comparing the proposed reference values, the authors think that the exposure level of patients in their department is at an acceptable level.