Evaluation of the exposure index as a quality indicator in radiographic practice

• Κύριος συγγραφέας: Παππά, Αικατερίνη
• Άλλοι συγγραφείς: Pappa, Aikaterini
• Γλώσσα: English
• Έκδοση: 2022
• Θέματα: Exposure index; Radiography; Δείκτης έκθεσης; Ακτινογραφία

A research, from June 2021 to June 2022, was conducted with 498 adult patients, who underwent some of the most typical diagnostic X–ray examinations (chest, abdomen and extremities). The data collection took place at Patra’s University General Hospital, which is located in Rio of Greece. For each patient’s projection, data were recorded from the radiography system, such as such as exposure parameters (kVp, mA, ms), SID, field size, dosimetric parameters (DAP) and EI. The digital radiography systems brought into service were the Philips DigitalDiagnost (Philips Medical Systems, Netherlands, BV) and the AGFA DX-D 600 (Agfa HealthCare’s MUSICA). The radiography systems used for this study were under a systematic Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) (QA/QC) program by the Medical Physics Department of the hospital. Descriptive statistics were performed on the data. The Spearman’s rank correlation test was used for testing the correlation between the parameters for all DigitalDiagnost’s and AGFA’S projections. Where it was found, also with the help of scatter plots, that the EI is statistically dependent on the tube current and the exposure time. In addition, the Kruskal-Wallis H test was used to compare the medians of the EI values for more than two independent groups of kVp, SID, Field size and Image view. The results showed that the majority of the EI values from both systems fall within the same range, specifically (100 – 500) and that the median ΕΙ values don’t differ significantly for these parameters. Although, the DigitalDiagnost demonstrates a significantly larger range for the EI (100-2000) comparing to the AGFA system. Regarding the relationship of the EI and DAP, the trend line of the DigitalDiagnost system’s data shows that the EI remains relatively constant, as DAP increases, and equal to 400. The median value of the EI of all the DigitalDiagnost’s projections was also found equal to 400, from the Kruskall wallis H test. While, the trend line of the AGFA system’s data shows that EI slightly increases, as DAP increases too. While the median value of the EI of all the AGFA’s projections was found equal to 249, from the Kruskall wallis H test. In conclusion, the results of both systems don’t vary significantly.