Radiation Exposure in Vascular Angiographic Procedures

PurposeTo evaluate dose reduction in vascular angiographic procedures by using fluoroscopy capture instead of digital subtraction angiography frames for documentation.Materials and MethodsA total of 764 consecutive vascular interventional procedures performed over a period of 1 year were retrospectively analyzed with respect to the fluoroscopy time and the resulting dose–area product (DAP), the DAP of the radiographic frames, and the overall DAP.ResultsA total of 70% of the total DAP was a result of the acquisition of radiographic frames, leaving only 30% being applied by fluoroscopy.ConclusionsFluoroscopy capture should be used for documentation whenever possible. A registry of radiation exposure should not only comprise a sufficiently large number of interventions but also different intervention types to allow the development of interventional reference levels.