Preliminary assessment of of effective doses for patients undergoing hepatic arterial chemoembolization

The aim of the study was to estimate the patient effective doses from hepatic arterial chemoembolization. The study was based on the parameters of the protocols of liver chemoembolization collected for 67 patients in Angiography department of the «A.M. Granov Russian Scientific Center of Radiology and Surgical Technologies» of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation. The parameters were collected using a dedicated questionnaire and exported from digital image files in DICOM format with preliminary anonymization. The simulation of patient exposure was performed using PCXMC 2.0 software. The median values of the patient dose-related quantities (minimum and maximum values) were as follows: total dose–area product – 6.1 Gy×cm² (3.4-693Gy×cm²), fluoroscopy time – 7.5 min (2.0-28.3 min), effective dose – 11.7 mSv (0.6-132 mSv). For three patients effective doses exceeded 100 mSv. In two cases, total dose-area product exceeded the control values for deterministic effects in the skin. No tissue reactions were identified for the whole patient sample.

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