ARPANSA - Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency

Monitoring Radiation Doses From Diagnostic Radiology

ARPANSA has a responsibility to estimate the radiation doses to the Australian population from radiological procedures. Evaluation of these doses provides valuable baseline information for the optimisation of dose management. The data also allow Australian doses to be compared with those of other countries and for the setting of national diagnostic reference levels (DRLs). The latter are used as indicative benchmarks for comparative radiological practices.

Multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) procedures have become the dominant contributor to the radiation dose to the population from diagnostic radiology. This has come about both because of the increasing number of procedures and the increasing complexity and capacity afforded by modern technology. ARPANSA surveyed radiation doses from MDCT in 1994, 2002 and estimated contemporary doses in 2008 for standard MDCT procedures. In Australia the per head radiation dose from CT for 2002 was approximately 0.8 mSv, in 2008 this has increased to an estimated 1.2 mSv, a growth of 50%. ARPANSA, in close collaboration with the Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Radiologists (RANZCR), has developed a national web based dose survey of common MDCT procedures which will enable (i) the dose contribution from MDCT to the Australian population to be established, and (ii) MDCT practices to compare their doses with national MDCT protocol reference levels which will be recognised as indicative measures of reasonable practice. As a consequence, radiology practices, using these reference levels, may wish to modify their protocols if required. Read more about the National Diagnostic Reference Level Survey.

Publication of the first national MDCT diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) is expected by the last quarter of 2011.

ARPANSA, in collaboration with RANZCR and other stakeholders, intends to expand the survey to establish DRLs for Interventional Fluoroscopy (including Cardiac Angiography), PET/CT, Mammography, Nuclear Medicine and General Fluoroscopy and Radiography.

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