Patient Skin Dose in Interventional Radiology

Studies on radiation induced patients' skin lesions in interventional radiology highlighted the need for optimized and personalized patient dosimetry and adapted patient follow-up. Measurements using Gafchromic® films or thermoluminescent dosimeters have long been the only way to accurately evaluate the maximum absorbed dose to the patient skin. However as these dose measurements are tedious and expensive, they could not be systematically applicable in clinical practice. Therefore, more practical calculation methods have been developed. These software programs calculate the skin dose using dosimetric information from images DICOM header or radiation dose structured reports (RDSRs). Validation studies of these software programs are rare and when existent have many limitations. Radiation Dose Monitor (RDM from Medsquare) is a software program for archiving and monitoring of radiation dose (DACS, Dosimetry Archiving Communication System) used in routine in the investigator's hospitals. A new functionality developed in RDM allows quick estimation without in-vivo measurements of the absorbed dose to the skin of the patient. Comparing RDM calculations with in-vivo measurements will enable this software validation so that it can be used in clinical routine. Main objective: to validate RDM software for calculating patient skin dose in interventional radiology.