Patient Dosimetry and Reference Doses: Practical Considerations

The Council Directive 97/43/EURATOM requires Member States to guarantee the establishment of diagnostic reference levels in radiodiagnostics. Patient dosimetry and image quality are basic controls in quality assurance programmes, according to the predictive capability to diagnose the correct behaviour of an X ray facility, including both X ray equipment and examination protocol. This paper addresses the role of both items in the framework of optimisation and the approach of the quality assurance programmes to interventional and digital radiology, fields where the reference levels are scarcely developed and a number of practical challenges must be solved. Expertise in the use of diagnostic reference levels and foresights on quality assurance in an X ray department of a university hospital with digital equipment are described.