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Physics - Radiation Protection Case Review with Dr. Mahesh (5-13-25)

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0:02

Hello and welcome to Case Crunch, rapid case review

0:05

for the core exam hosted by modality.

0:07

In this rapid FI fire format,

0:09

faculty will show key images along

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with a multiple choice question,

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and you'll respond with your best answer via

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the live polling feature.

0:16

After a quick answer explanation, it's onto the next case.

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You'll be able to access the recording

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of today's case review

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and previous case reviews

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by creating a free account using the link

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provided in the chat today.

0:28

We are honored to welcome Dr.

0:30

M Mahesh for a physics board review in radiation protection.

0:34

Dr. Mahesh is a professor of radiology

0:36

and cardiology at Johns Hopkins School

0:38

of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland.

0:41

Additionally, he's the chair of the Radiation Control

0:43

Committee, president of a A PM Board, member

0:46

of a CR subject matter expert for U-N-I-A-E-A

0:51

and an elected member of NCRP and ICRP.

0:55

Questions will be covered at the end if time allows.

0:57

Please remember to use the q

0:58

and a feature to submit your questions.

1:00

With that, we are ready to begin today's board review. Dr.

1:03

Mahesh, please take it from here.

1:07

Wonderful. Uh, welcome back to this physics review,

1:11

and I'm happy to share my knowledge about this

1:13

radiation protection.

1:15

Um, and a few question on radiation biology also, uh,

1:19

this is a topic of interest, not necessarily just

1:22

for the board exam,

1:24

but eventually even for your practice lifelong.

1:27

And this is pretty much very practical, uh,

1:30

information which I want to share.

1:32

So having said that, let's start with the first question.

1:35

What is the unit of effective dose?

1:44

Correct? The answer is C word.

1:46

He is a French physicist

1:48

or German physicist who celebrated his birthday recently,

1:51

who did, who did some fundamental work in this area.

1:55

Um, so let's go to the next question.

1:58

Which cell division stage is most radio

2:02

sensitive to radiation?

2:10

Correct. The answer is correct.

2:12

Metaphase, that's the most a sensitive area when the cells

2:16

is about to divide.

2:17

Um, if the radiation interacts at that time, um,

2:21

there's a chances, um, is uh, effect is even more.

2:25

Next question. What is the maximum annual permissible

2:30

exposure for whole body to a radiation worker in the us?

2:35

These are the choices.

2:42

The answer is, uh, 50 milli word

2:45

and the cancer is correct, 50 milli seabert.

2:48

That's the annually permissible exposure

2:51

for a whole body to radiation worker.

2:53

And, uh, this is recommended by the NCRP,

2:56

which is a National Council

2:58

of Radiation Protection and Measurement.

3:00

They recommend these type of values, uh, recommended limits

3:04

and, but they don't make regulation.

3:06

But usually FDA

3:07

and the NRC are the EPA make the regulation, the us What?

3:12

So next question. What dose metric is useful

3:16

in estimating cancer and hereditary effects from radiation?

3:21

Choices are organ dose, effective dose, peak skin dose,

3:26

and detected dose?

3:33

The answer is effective dose correct Organ dose are also

3:37

important, but here we are talking about, um, estimating,

3:41

um, estimating cancer and risk.

3:44

Uh, when you say estimating cancer, it's the, um,

3:48

the effective dose is the most common, um, uh,

3:51

metrics we use

3:52

because effective dose gives us an way to estimate the risk

3:57

to the whole body from radiation exposure

4:00

to any one part of the body.

4:02

And that's how we incorporated or calculation.

4:04

For example, if you have a head ct, uh, what is,

4:07

if you calculate the effective dose we can see is

4:10

that ranges that from that information we can estimate risk

4:15

to the whole body like cancer causing cancer

4:18

or ary effect effect and so forth.

4:20

So effective dose is the most common

4:22

is the dose metrics used.

4:24

Organ doses are also critical important

4:27

because that are,

4:28

those are included in the effect two dose calculation.

4:31

I will, we will go into details later.

4:33

Peak skin dose on the other hand is the one which is used

4:38

for, um, estimating the skin dose to the patient

4:42

undergoing like interventional cardiology

4:44

or interventional radiology where the peak skin dose

4:48

or the entrance skin dose can give an idea

4:51

for the deterministic effect or the tissue effect,

4:54

but not on the cancer risk.

4:56

Detected dose is nothing to do with the patient.

4:58

It is more of the dose required to create a certain, uh,

5:02

images of certain image quality.

5:06

What is the unit of observed dose

5:14

Is gray.

5:15

That's correct. Um, the observed dose is defined, is defined

5:20

as the amount of energy observed in the unit pass of mass,

5:24

and it defined as the amount of energy is measured in JUULs

5:28

and the amount of ma mass is measured in kilogram.

5:32

And the, the ratio of JUULs

5:34

or divided by kilogram is gives what is called a the gray

5:38

grays again, um, uh, associated

5:41

with the German physicist gray who dial, who develop.

5:44

Some of this fundamental concept I also want

5:47

to say is like in the us we still use the old unit in

5:50

radiology such as the ranking, uh, rad

5:54

and ram gray is the yes si unit

5:58

rad is the old unit

6:00

and you need to know the conversion one gray cost 100 rad.

6:04

That is the conversion.

6:07

Typically most of these diagnostic imaging procedures,

6:11

the observed those range around in milli grade,

6:14

milli grays 1000 of a grade.

6:17

So these are the range of conversions you need

6:19

to understand inspective observe dose.

6:22

Another thing which I want

6:24

to say is like when you say observe dose to a patient,

6:28

actually we don't measure the observed dose.

6:30

We can only measure the, the dose,

6:34

the radiation entering the body at the surface.

6:36

From there we can calculate the observed dose by multiplying

6:41

by a, um, absorption factor called the F factor.

6:45

And these F factors are published in literature

6:47

for variety of tissues.

6:49

So that's how this observed dose is calculated.

6:53

What is the regulation regarding radiation exposure

6:56

for pregnant workers in the us?

7:05

The answer is no more than 0.5 milli ut per

7:08

month is the better choice.

7:09

That is correct. And the reason is like

7:12

when a radiation worker, she's pregnant,

7:16

that's when the employee is obligated to monitor the,

7:20

the dose, the pregnant dose, a radiation worker dose.

7:23

And the way it is monitored is

7:25

during the entire gas station time, the,

7:28

the total dose the person can get is about five milli ct.

7:33

And in any one month it cannot be more than

7:36

0.5 milli seaward.

7:38

The way we monitor in the hospital is we,

7:42

the radiation workers moment,

7:43

she's declared pregnancy the radiation safety officer,

7:47

the office provide two radiation badges, monitor units, one

7:51

to wear outside the apron, uh,

7:53

and one to wear underneath the apron near the abdominal,

7:57

more like a fetal dose measurement.

8:00

And these two are taken into account and any, and,

8:04

and we are also cautioned that workers don't

8:07

exchange the badge to where they're supposed to wear it,

8:10

but either way it should not be more than point milli C five

8:14

milli c per month.

8:17

What is the average background?

8:19

Annual, um, radiation exposure in the United States?

8:29

The answer is three milli C word.

8:32

Um, again, um, the, this is an approximation

8:36

and I said this is an average background annual radiation

8:40

exposure and there are some area in the US which receives

8:45

very high radi background radiation such as, um,

8:48

in general Denver, Colorado

8:50

or where it is up in the mountains,

8:52

the height more higher it is.

8:54

And because of the lot of radium deposits,

8:57

the natural background radiation is can be as I as

9:01

10 milli c word per year.

9:03

But across the US the number we use, uh, citing

9:07

or an average exposure is three milli C word.

9:10

Why is this important for radiologists?

9:13

Because sometime it helps when you're trying

9:16

to communicate the radiation risk to the patient

9:18

or from a particular imaging study, we use this information

9:22

to provide some type of a relative comparison

9:26

to put the dose levels in perspective.

9:28

Because if you simply give some number from HSC CT

9:32

or a head ct, some milli c word it by,

9:35

by in itself doesn't make any sense at that time.

9:38

These type of information is very helpful.

9:43

What is the radiation quality factor

9:45

for x-rays and gamma ray?

9:54

So the answer is all over the place here,

9:56

but majority of you chosen is one that is correct.

9:59

So what is quality factor?

10:02

So what is quality factor is defined as follows.

10:05

Different type of radiation has different quality factor.

10:09

The reason is if the, for the same type of amount

10:13

of exposure and neutron exposure will have 20 times more

10:18

damaging capability compared to x-rays or gamma ray.

10:22

And that is why we account this what is called

10:25

as the radiation quality factor, as

10:28

as an important factor in radiology

10:31

and in radiation oncology.

10:32

Luckily in radiology, since we use x-rays

10:35

and gamma rays, the quality factor is one.

10:38

So the way we do is like we take the absorbed dose

10:42

multiplied by the, uh, the type

10:44

of quality factor will give you the dose

10:47

equivalent to the patient.

10:49

So what I meant to say is like, uh,

10:51

if there is a certain amount of exposure

10:54

is from x-rays versus alpha particle, the damage,

10:58

the biological damage is 20 times greater

11:02

with alpha particle compared to the x-rays

11:05

and that's accounted in the radiation quality factor.

11:09

According to ICRP report 1 0 3, the most

11:14

radio-sensitive organ is

11:23

Interesting.

11:23

Many of you have been reading the book.

11:25

I suppose that's why the correct answer is breast

11:28

because ICRP stands for International Commission

11:33

of Radiation Protection.

11:34

This is the international body which provides based on the

11:39

current, uh, based on the time period research information

11:43

puts out, uh, re um, documents or policies and reports.

11:47

And this ICRP report 1 0 3 is the latest report which goes

11:52

through the, um, tissue, tissue weight factor.

11:55

It's called the tissue weight factor.

11:58

Um, shown here is the breast tissues had a lower weight

12:02

factor earlier in the IC RRP one 60,

12:05

just 60 published back in 19 19 87

12:09

when the new IC RRP report 1 0 3 was published in 2007.

12:14

The, the prevailing research that led to the committee

12:17

to change the weight factor 1.05, 2.12.

12:22

And at the same time historically we all assumed goads are

12:25

the more, most radios to radiation

12:29

actually goad are now degraded, are now con considered not

12:33

that sensitive compared to other tissues such as breast,

12:37

red marrow, lung tissue and so forth.

12:40

So this is an important findings

12:42

and uh, which is going to be there for a few more years.

12:46

And for disclosure, I'm one of the elected member

12:49

of the ICRP committee.

12:51

We are actually now already started looking

12:54

for is there these waiting factor need to be changed or not?

12:58

And we are already putting together this groups

13:00

to do some investigation

13:02

and come up with a report pretty soon.

13:04

But until that the ICR 1 0 3 stands,

13:08

so the breast tissue is the most sensitive than the goads.

13:14

What is LD 50 30 for adult humans.

13:23

Okay, so first of all, this is, uh, you need

13:27

to know what is ld?

13:30

LD stands for lethal dose.

13:32

And then you also need to know what is 50

13:35

and what is 30 nomenclature really means.

13:38

So in the radiation biology

13:39

or in radiation protection,

13:41

this LD 50 30 is really important

13:44

and is it is defined for various tumors and various cells

13:48

and also for adult tumors.

13:50

And this particular concept becomes very important

13:53

with respect to analyzing the any radiation accidents

13:57

or, uh, terrorist, uh, uh, radiation accident

14:00

or cherno and so forth.

14:02

What it basically says,

14:03

like lethal dose 50 means 50% of the population

14:09

will die within 30 days.

14:11

That's what LD 50 30.

14:13

The first number tells what percentage of the population

14:16

will pass, will die,

14:18

and the second number tell you what at what time period.

14:22

So if a population is exposed to three grades,

14:26

that is the whole body is exposed

14:28

to approximately three grave exposure,

14:31

which can only happen in some type

14:33

of a nuclear accident or disaster.

14:36

In that case, we, we can expect almost 50%

14:39

of the population dying in 30 days.

14:43

So whole body radiation that can be lethal in 50%

14:46

of the exposed population within 30 days.

14:49

There is other others also is listed as, uh,

14:52

LD 50 10, 30, 50 to 60 and 160.

14:56

What I want you to remember is like

14:58

what the first number tells the percentage

15:00

of the population passing away.

15:02

And the second number indicates the time period

15:05

For adult humans it's about three grand approximately.

15:09

So without any medical inter in intervention,

15:13

actually the little dose for humans are usually given

15:16

as LD 50 60, at least 51.

15:19

The population will pass away in 60 days without any

15:22

intervention and that amount is three to four gram.

15:29

What dose levels given in gray leads

15:32

to permanent sterility in females?

15:41

This again, the answer is, um, the answer is five gray

15:45

and I I um,

15:47

and this is approximation, I just want to tell even though

15:50

for those people who are told, one, choose a one, um,

15:54

or eight, it can happen to some females,

15:57

but in general account of radiation biology

15:59

and textbooks, we use what is called as the PHI grave

16:03

for per permanent sterility.

16:05

So, um, the, that varying degree

16:08

of sterility can occur due to radiation exposure

16:13

and especially this is, uh, uh, discussed more

16:16

with the patient undergoing radiation therapy,

16:19

but not with in imaging

16:21

or anything only there, the therapeutic dose is so high

16:24

and especially patient, female patient, were about to, um,

16:28

have child or

16:29

before children, they indicate

16:32

that if the dose is more than five grade, that can lead

16:35

to permanent ality, even a lower level of, um, uh,

16:41

exposure up to 10 rad.

16:42

A 0.1 grade can lead to depressed sperm population,

16:46

but usually that comes back.

16:48

So these are some of the effect

16:50

of re on the reproductive organ when large quantity

16:53

of radiation dose is, is inclined, uh,

16:56

is incident on these type of organs.

17:01

What is the most probable radiation effects on unborn

17:06

due to radiation exposure during second or third trimester?

17:17

Answer is increased childhood leukemia, um,

17:20

spontaneous abortion congenital mal fashion.

17:23

So the, our understanding is during the second

17:25

and third trimester, the chances is more

17:28

for a congenital malformation for large quantity,

17:32

every radiation exposure will have certain chances

17:35

for childhood leukemia, but the chances

17:37

of congenital malformation is higher if the exposure occurs

17:41

second to third trimester.

17:42

Let's look at here. This is the current

17:44

understanding we have.

17:46

So let me see that I don't like this one.

17:49

Here is the pipe picture shown here.

17:51

This is a radiation irradiation of a mouse.

17:55

Prenatal development in a mouse can be kind of, uh, similar

17:58

to what the pregnancy of the pregnancy model is.

18:02

And here on this mouse model, um,

18:04

all these mouse model at various stages

18:06

of this conception is given 200 ranking of exposure.

18:10

That's a large radiation exposure when the, if

18:13

during the first trimester, if it happened,

18:15

the chances are more of a prenatal death

18:17

or embryonic, um, death.

18:20

But if it is more of a second trimester

18:22

and third trimester as I mentioned,

18:24

that's when organogenesis time,

18:27

that's when grass congenital malformation is more chances.

18:31

Of course, there is always child like risk

18:33

of childhood cancer that with any type of exposure,

18:37

but more the gross ular malformation is the correct answer.

18:40

The last part is, uh, this, I'm gonna discuss it later.

18:44

Um, any exposure to the fetus more than a hundred milli K

18:48

during the first six weeks

18:49

of conception is generally considered cutoff point

18:54

above which some type of intervention is considered.

18:57

Again, it is only considered but it's not a uh, threshold.

19:02

Um, for example, how many, how much one get a hundred

19:06

milligram or 10 rad of exposure?

19:09

Uh, typically, um, a an abdomen

19:12

and pelvic CT gets about 10 milligram.

19:15

So you're talking about under,

19:16

unless the pregnant patient is scanned 10 times

19:19

during the first six book,

19:21

the pregnancy only then the person's doses gets

19:24

fetus can get to this level.

19:26

So generally, if the clinically indication is strong

19:30

scanning or scanning using CT scan even

19:32

during the pregnancy is considered fairly decent

19:35

or considered fairly safe as long as it's clinically strong.

19:41

What is the maximum permissible exposure

19:44

for whole body to general public?

19:53

That's correct. The answer is this is the general body.

19:56

General public is one.

19:58

What it basically means is like we group people, those

20:01

who are working in a radiation environment are considered

20:04

radiation work such as radiologists, physicians

20:07

and, uh, technologists or medical physicists.

20:10

And we are assigned a radiation badge.

20:12

We are monitored, but everybody else in the area

20:15

are in the hospital or in general public are considered

20:18

general public and they're allowed

20:21

for maximum permissible exposure from these type

20:24

of exposure is not one one milli c you,

20:27

you can ask the question, oh,

20:28

the annual background radiation three receiver.

20:31

This is pertains to

20:32

what the general public can receive if they're

20:35

around the hospital or around the x-ray area.

20:38

And that limit is one milli C

20:40

and this also indicates this cannot used

20:44

as a reference point for how the reconstruction is done,

20:47

how the x-ray rooms are built.

20:49

We call it what is called as the x-ray shielding.

20:52

We use lead line walls for protect the anybody standing

20:56

outside, uh, who should not get more than one milli ct.

20:59

That's the, that's the one of the utility

21:01

of this particular, uh, uh, value.

21:06

What is a single radiation dose, uh, threshold for onset

21:11

of temporary appellation?

21:19

The answer is three gray is correct.

21:22

Um, the, this is a temporary appellation

21:25

and that's an approximately what is acceptable value.

21:28

Here are various threshold dose to skin, um,

21:32

for different type of radiation induced injuries.

21:35

And this on the third column is given the weeks to onset.

21:39

So a temporary appellation

21:41

or a early transient erythema goes around between two

21:44

to three gray of skin dose

21:47

and that usually shows up within one to three weeks.

21:51

Those a lot of the patient don't complain

21:53

because that will go away.

21:55

Only when a patient has received more than six gray

21:57

or seven gray, that's when they experience main erythema,

22:01

the permanent erythema

22:03

or a permanent ablation, which usually unset one

22:06

and a half to three weeks and we can see greater number

22:09

of dose if you go down the list.

22:11

These are different injuries which are ob observed.

22:14

Here is an example, um, shown here.

22:17

This is a, um, uh, various cases explored in the literature

22:22

due to interventional fluoroscopy cases area.

22:25

This is a cardio interventional cardiology procedure

22:28

where the breast was too close causing this type

22:30

of a skin injury on the breast.

22:33

On these two cases are ex very extreme case

22:35

where probably the elbow was very close to the x-ray tube

22:39

for the entire duration

22:40

of the procedure resulting in a complete hollowness

22:44

of the skin leading to the complete bone.

22:46

This is like really serious injury, very rare,

22:49

but we have seen many,

22:50

many cases in this over my period of experience.

22:55

What is the unit of equivalent dose?

23:04

The answer is, uh,

23:07

is correct, is C word.

23:10

Now you can ask the question

23:11

because earlier I asked the question, what is the unit

23:13

of effect to dose and the, the unit was also C word

23:17

and what is the unit of equal in dose?

23:19

That's also C word.

23:21

Then the question is, what is the difference

23:22

between equivalent dose and effective dose?

23:25

Equivalent dose is the way

23:27

we calculate from the observed dose multiplied

23:31

by the radiation quality factor.

23:34

We get equivalent dose.

23:36

So the observed dose is usually graves gives in a gray

23:41

multiplied by the radiation weight factor

23:43

that is the quality factor such as for x-rays

23:46

and gamma A is one

23:48

therefore a gray of observed dose equal to one ra, one C

23:53

of F equivalent dose, the different in equivalent dose

23:56

and effective doses in effective dose.

23:59

We multiply that by a tissue weight factor,

24:02

which we are showed earlier

24:04

by multiplying another constant factor.

24:07

The these, the, the unit remains the same

24:10

as seabert probably.

24:15

We are wondering why all these things,

24:17

one way we can think about is we want medical physicists

24:19

to keep our jobs, so we need to keep confusing.

24:21

No, just kidding, but that's what is derived towards account

24:25

for this dose equivalent and dose equivalent effort to dose.

24:29

So what is the maximum permissible exposure

24:33

for radiation workers for skin, hands and feet?

24:44

The answer is, um, we have variety of answers,

24:47

but the majority answered 500 milli ct

24:50

and that is, that is the correct answer.

24:53

Um, 500 milli ct.

24:55

Now the question comes into page why, um, skin, hands

24:58

and feet can take larger amount compared to the whole body,

25:02

which is 50 milli ct.

25:03

The answer is the organs are tissues associated with skin,

25:07

hands and feet are less radio sensitive, uh, uh, tissues.

25:13

Therefore they're allowed to live a higher threshold

25:16

because even with this one, the da, the the,

25:19

the damage is not that obvious.

25:21

So that's why skin, hands

25:22

and feet can given li uh, limit up to five milli receiver.

25:26

So the next question is

25:28

how does one can get this amount of radiation?

25:31

Let's say for example, if you are an interventional

25:33

cardiologist or if you are an interventional radiologist,

25:36

you are working with the patient around the patient,

25:38

your hands may be in the path of the primary beam.

25:41

That's one exposure.

25:43

The other one is like in the, in the cyclotron facilities

25:46

or in a pet city lab where there is a radio chemist

25:50

who draws out these isotope from the cyclotron, uh,

25:54

separates them and uh,

25:55

separates them into different quantities and so forth.

25:58

Their hand exposure can be as a, can go up high

26:02

and that this allows us for them

26:04

to work without seeing detrimental effect.

26:10

Standing closer to x-ray tube side than image receptor side

26:14

during fluoroscopy provides greater radiation protection.

26:24

So 20% said true majority said false.

26:28

The answer is false

26:30

because for this reason, look at the radiation pattern

26:34

around the interven fluoroscopy system.

26:37

This is a, in the AP direction,

26:40

in the interventional fluoroscopy,

26:42

the table is a free floating table.

26:44

So the table don't protect any radiation protection,

26:47

whereas in a general diagnostic radiology fluoroscopy

26:50

system, the x-ray tube is inside the table.

26:53

So a lot of this is blocked.

26:56

So in general, what happen if you're standing close

26:58

to the x-ray tube side,

27:00

you not only get scatter radiation from the patient,

27:03

you can also get some leakage radiation also to the,

27:05

from the patient from the x-ray tube.

27:08

So that's why this is two to three times more dose.

27:11

Whereas if you're standing closer to the AI side,

27:14

image receptor side, let's say uh, uh, in this days

27:19

what happened is less scatter is coming out

27:22

of the patient here compared to here

27:24

because there's also back scatter.

27:26

And, um, but, and also

27:29

and plus, sorry, plus this, um, this image receptor

27:34

bringing closer to the patient can block lot

27:37

of this scatter coming out also,

27:39

therefore, the scatter radiation is much lesser on the image

27:44

receptor side compared

27:45

to the radiation on the radiation exposure On the x-ray tube

27:48

side, Which CT exam is impacted most

27:54

in terms of affected dose

27:56

by ICRP tissue waiting factor 1 0 3.

28:06

Interesting. So now, uh, 40% of the same got chest CT

28:10

and 40%, 43% got abdominal ct.

28:13

So if you remember back in, uh,

28:15

I CRP 1 0 3 tissue waiting factor,

28:17

which are discuss showed earlier,

28:19

the tissues involved in the chest CT areas,

28:21

the breast which are higher with tissue weight factor,

28:24

whereas the tissues involved in the abdominal C,

28:28

the one which is have gone down,

28:30

therefore the answer is chest CT

28:32

with a new tissue waiting factor.

28:34

The chest CT doses in terms of affected dose is higher.

28:39

This is also one of the reason why

28:42

we medical physicists do not encourage vendors

28:45

to display effective dose value on the monitor.

28:49

We only want them to display observed dose, uh,

28:52

and uh, scale entrance dose, but not the effective dose

28:55

because the effective dose need

28:58

to be computed based on the prevailing tissue waiting

29:01

factor, which a medical physicist

29:03

or the radiologist will know at that particular time period.

29:07

Therefore, in this particular choice head CT

29:09

and extremity ct, they're not impacted

29:12

by the tissue weight factor.

29:13

The one which is impacted

29:14

by the tissue weight factor is this, uh, uh, chest CT

29:18

because the breast dose is now going to be almost, um, uh,

29:22

30 times percent more,

29:24

therefore this is impacted According

29:28

to n CRP one 60.

29:30

What is the maximum permissible dose

29:32

to x-ray technologist on an annual basis?

29:42

And the answer is 50.

29:43

That's, uh, because technologies

29:44

that considered the radiation worker,

29:46

therefore the maximum permissible dose is 50 milli.

29:50

So I just summarize this whole

29:52

thing in this particular table.

29:54

This is again given by the NCRP report, NCRP stand for

29:59

National Council of Radiation Protection Measurement.

30:02

Um, this full disclosure, I'm one

30:03

of the elected council member

30:04

of this than a hundred council member in the country.

30:07

This is a US uh, US government advisory body, um,

30:12

charted by the Congress.

30:14

So this NCRP committees will put out these type of reports,

30:17

but without any, um, recommendation of what to be done.

30:21

But usually these type

30:23

of recommendation are the policies comes out, are picked up

30:26

by the FDA or the EPA or the NRC

30:29

and they make into regulation one such report one 16

30:33

provided these limits and immediately this has become their

30:35

regulation in the US right now, various states

30:39

and, uh, NRC regulates this on the hospital.

30:42

So radiation workers for a whole body

30:45

on an annual dose limit is 50 milli.

30:48

I've also given the older unit, uh, older unit that, uh,

30:53

in, in terms of the ramp here.

30:56

So ICE can go up to 15 milli REM

30:59

or 150 millivolt skin hands and feet is 500.

31:04

What this is called a community dose.

31:06

Any radiation worker should not get more than

31:10

10 times their age.

31:11

In terms of millivolt, let's say you are 35,

31:14

your cumulative dose reading on all the badge

31:17

reading every year.

31:19

If you add up, you should not be more than

31:21

10 times your age.

31:22

Let's say you're 35,

31:24

that should not be more than three 50 milli a

31:27

and for a general public,

31:28

the whole body is one milli c word.

31:31

As I mentioned earlier. This is influences the way we do

31:35

construct the x-ray room, CTR, uh, uh, fluoroscopy suite,

31:39

eyes, skin and hands is given 50.

31:41

Milli receiver for a general public, for a radiation worker

31:45

for the entire gas station is five milli receiver, majority

31:48

of you answered correctly.

31:49

And in many one month it's one 10th of this 1.5 milli c.

31:54

So this table is important for you guys to remember, uh,

31:58

if you and keep it, keep a, keep it

32:00

as a cheat sheet for yourself.

32:01

When you're looking at various, various groups

32:04

and their annual dose limits allowed in the US

32:10

What dose metrics is useful in estimating tissue

32:15

reactions or deterministic effects from radiation?

32:24

So the answer is major 41% said a peak skin dose

32:29

and the answer is, um, peak skin dose.

32:32

So there are two things. The biological effect

32:34

of radiation can be grouped into two groups.

32:37

One is called the stochastic effect,

32:39

which is a long-term effect

32:41

and the best example is radiation induced cancer to, uh,

32:45

to calculate that when we use effective dose term,

32:48

whereas the deterministic effect now we call

32:51

that we change the name from tissue deterministic effect

32:54

to tissue effects

32:56

and that tissue effects are actually calculated

32:59

by the skin dose.

33:00

Peak skin dose are the entrance skin dose in this choice,

33:04

the peak skin dose was the more appropriate one.

33:09

Standing behind a person wearing lead apron

33:13

and facing the x-ray source provide radiation protection.

33:23

The majority said true.

33:24

And actually the answer is true

33:26

because that's why you might be wondering why your physician

33:29

is standing behind you when you are doing a um, uh,

33:32

fluoroscopy procedure

33:33

because you're gonna provide additional protection,

33:35

let's say, and the protection is provided by the apron.

33:39

Apron comes in all one piece or two pieces.

33:42

Recommended level is between 0.25

33:44

to 0.5 millimeter lead thickness.

33:47

And then here is what I meant to say.

33:50

When somebody is standing, we are facing the x-ray tube.

33:54

If you stand behind it,

33:55

that particular person would provide good production.

33:58

This is shown by what is called as a lead barriers,

34:01

which most of the fluoroscopy rooms, at least at Hopkins,

34:05

we have in all the rooms where,

34:07

and a person who's not doing the procedure can simply stand

34:11

behind it because this created a shadow region.

34:13

The same thing applies when you are standing behind a person

34:17

who is wearing a lead apron

34:19

and you stand behind, it means the person will provide

34:21

additional color protection, we don't advise,

34:24

but if you're standing behind it, you still need

34:26

to wear a lead apron and so forth.

34:28

So this is, and this is more recommended

34:31

to have in every room

34:32

because it's gonna create a good area for shadow region

34:36

where, for example,

34:37

a medical student watching the procedure can stand here

34:40

or an anesthesiologist can stand here, work

34:42

behind the procedure and so forth.

34:45

Which statement regarding radiation risk to fetus

34:49

during pregnancy is true.

34:56

Okay, so which is true fetal exposure from head C is minimal

35:01

and is due to majority have selected the correct answer.

35:05

That that is true because I just wanted

35:07

to bring this question because

35:08

or we know microcephaly is, um, reducing the head size

35:14

has shown in some of the survivor, um, uh,

35:17

Japanese Hiroshima Nagasaki survivor, uh,

35:20

who were pregnant at that time, some kids were born

35:23

with the microcephaly

35:24

and it's estimated to be received more than 300 grand.

35:27

Um, therapeutic abortion is disgusted if it is more than a

35:30

hundred milligram, that's also true

35:32

and radiation worker can receive up to 50 minutes per month.

35:36

That's not true. Whereas this one, um,

35:39

fetal exposure from head CT is minimal

35:41

because if there is any, anything happen to the fetus,

35:45

it's only because in this case it's only internal scatter

35:48

and that internal scatter is far away from the head CT area.

35:51

Therefore, the fetal exposure from head CT is minimal.

35:55

And again, this is, these two are not right

35:58

because we are, we talk about this thing,

36:00

but we don't have any evidence of this very directly

36:03

for 300 milli milligram

36:05

or a hundred milligram scatter radiation is larger

36:10

than other type of radiation present

36:13

in a typical fluoroscopy suite.

36:21

Okay? The answer

36:22

with this question is scatter radiation is larger

36:24

than other type of radiation.

36:25

Present is in a fluoroscopy suite.

36:29

Is uh, is uh, true?

36:31

I'll explain it more, but there is some um,

36:33

some alignment of this question lot.

36:35

There is one more question.

36:36

I'm gonna drop this question back

36:38

and let me come back to this question directly.

36:41

The source of exposure in any x-ray room are the following

36:45

primary radiations cat radiation, leakage radiation for,

36:49

for anybody inside the x-ray room other than the patient,

36:53

the, the greatest source

36:54

of exposure is the scatter radiation.

36:57

That's what I meant in the question 23

36:59

and the leakage radiation, there is some amount,

37:02

but that is smaller compared to the scatter radiation.

37:04

So among the three source of radiation, the radiation

37:08

to the person other than the patient in the room is from

37:11

the scatter radiation.

37:13

And that's, I meant to say that

37:15

which is the earliest clinically deductible effect

37:19

of radiation on the skin.

37:27

And the the correct answer is, um, erythema. That's correct.

37:31

And um, uh, the, that is the earliest,

37:34

that is the skin reding effect.

37:36

Even temporary erythema are permanent arrium.

37:38

That's what it's the first clinically indicated effort.

37:41

You see that which of the following is considered

37:44

to offer minimal radiation protection to the fluoroscopist

37:55

And the answer is radiation, uh, uh, surgical blouse.

38:00

And the answer is that's correct

38:02

because we, we had to use protective lead, uh, aprons

38:06

to protect the maximum protection for uh, radiologist.

38:09

We also recommend using thyroid shield,

38:11

we also using C mounted lac,

38:14

but this one few companies try to sell these,

38:16

these are very thin latex blouse which has a lead material

38:21

kind of, but if you happen to use this,

38:24

this actually produce more radiation to the fingers

38:26

and there are excellent pay publication showing that.

38:29

Here's an example of a person wearing that thin blouse.

38:32

You can see here when they are in the path

38:34

of the primary beam, you can see the bony structure

38:37

of the fluoroscopist actually

38:39

because the multiple scatter,

38:41

the finger gets even more than without the glos

38:45

and we call them as emper glos.

38:50

Which of the following imaging procedure

38:53

for a pregnant worker

38:55

will deliver the highest radiation dose

38:58

to six week old fetus?

39:01

What I meant is like for a pregnant patient,

39:09

correct?

39:10

The majority have chosen KUB radius.

39:12

That is correct because KUB involves directly exposure on

39:16

the, on the abdominal area, whereas chest ct,

39:20

the pregnant patient is exposed to chest ct,

39:22

the fetus only gets inal, scatter is much less.

39:26

Abdominal ultrasound does not have any radiation.

39:29

Head CT gets radiation,

39:30

but the inal scatter is low low compared

39:33

to the choice the KUB, the kidney

39:35

and bladder, which is a direct exposure of the fetus.

39:38

So the those so does the radiation exposure is higher

39:43

with KUB radiography series than in any other procedures.

39:50

According to NC RRP 180 4, which CT procedures are done,

39:55

uh, uh, are done mostly in pediatric population

40:00

in the US

40:08

And the answer is head ct.

40:10

You are correct and the choice is correct.

40:12

And again, this NC RRP 180 4 was published in 2019,

40:17

which calculated the radiation exposure

40:20

to US population from medical procedures.

40:23

And when we computed this particular report, we, we saw

40:26

that the, the number of CT procedures done in the us 10%

40:30

of the cts are done in pediatric

40:32

and among the pediatric population, these 10% of the cts,

40:36

majority of them, almost like 80 to 90% were head CT

40:40

because children are brought to the emergency room in the

40:43

fall, the playground

40:44

or some high fever, the common C done is the head C,

40:51

Which imaging modality results in the highest collective

40:54

medical exposure to US population

41:03

ct?

41:03

That's correct. And here is the things,

41:08

this is a really number of procedures, um,

41:11

done in the US versus the average individual effective dose

41:15

for US population in 2006.

41:18

If you look in here, we did about, uh,

41:20

four 91 million procedure in the us So among that majority

41:25

of the procedure were radiography and fluoroscopy

41:28

and uh, CT was accounted to 74 million at that time.

41:31

But when we compute the collective effective dose,

41:35

CT accounted for the majority of the radiation exposure,

41:38

collective effective dose to the population

41:40

ies next one is the nuclear medicine.

41:43

Now later one is the radiography and fluoroscopy

41:46

and followed on the other, other,

41:48

Uh, What is the dose response relationship

41:52

for solid tumors used by BR seven

41:56

and unskilled committees?

42:04

Majority has said linear with no threshold.

42:06

That is, that is correct. That is called the L and T model.

42:10

What is BR seven and unskilled?

42:11

Unskilled is interation committee,

42:13

which puts out periodic reports on the radiation exposure

42:17

to the world population.

42:19

BR seven is the biological effect of ionizing radiation.

42:23

Uh, reports based on the people exposed to radiation

42:27

and the largest group is the survivor

42:29

of the Hiroshima Nagasaki.

42:30

Both of them used what is called as linear

42:33

with no threshold, which means no matter

42:36

how small the radiation, assuming there is a,

42:39

there is a, a radiation effect.

42:42

And this particular model was actually developed uh,

42:45

to give, to discuss

42:47

or provide way for the radiation protection of the workers,

42:52

which means um, the employer need to do all they can

42:56

to minimize the radiation exposure to their workers.

43:00

Unfortunately we also use it for discussing with the patient

43:04

and there's a lot of confusion,

43:05

but the model accepted is linear

43:07

with no threshold even though we don't have much data at the

43:11

lower level radiation doses.

43:15

What is the biggest contributor

43:17

to the annual background radiation exposure

43:19

to US population.

43:27

Okay, sorry, I clicked earlier, but the answer is radon

43:30

and actually radon is the one of the largest export.

43:34

Here is the, um, picture of it.

43:36

So this is the previous report which we published back in

43:40

2006 and you can see a majority of the background radiation.

43:44

50% of the radiation we get is from background.

43:47

If you look in among the background radiation, majority

43:50

of this come from radon art in the, in the uh, cus the next,

43:55

next largest next one is the um, um, a space, uh,

43:59

radiation background or cosmic radiation,

44:02

but majority is the rad radon.

44:06

So let me stop here and I want to have a few more slides,

44:08

but let me come back to the question ask here

44:11

and then I can come back a few more questions here.

44:14

So the questions, there are a couple of questions.

44:16

One was, um,

44:18

does the fluoro machine give the effective dose?

44:20

No, the fluoroscopy machine only provides um,

44:24

community dose, which is like a entrance skin dose

44:27

and also what is called as dose area product.

44:30

It's also called a CMA air product or dose area product

44:34

because community dose is very helpful in assessing the skin

44:38

dose, whereas the dose area product is used in

44:43

assessing the effective dose

44:45

for calculating the risk to the whole body.

44:47

If three gray kills, then why does phi gray for solidity?

44:52

The reason is like three gray.

44:53

When I say three gray that for the whole body exposure.

44:57

When I say phi gray, that's phi gray for,

45:01

for the gonadal region

45:02

or the ovary only, not for the whole body.

45:05

So your question is reasonable.

45:07

So three grade kills means five gray should automatically

45:10

kill, but you have to worry about sterility.

45:12

But here five gray is not to the whole body.

45:15

Just just to the uh, organ of interest.

45:18

The other question, what is the dose when a

45:21

therapeutic abortion discussed?

45:23

Generally we don't, we are not come across any situation.

45:27

We are discussed, but generally when it is more than a

45:30

hundred milli PC word or 110 REM

45:33

or a hundred milli C word, that's the effective dose.

45:36

That's when we discussed about these things

45:39

for consideration, not even as a rule of thumb

45:42

because we don't have good evidence of data,

45:45

something will happen at a hundred milli seaward.

45:48

How does one get a hundred milli seaward, as I said,

45:50

in the abdominal pelvic CT is about 10 milli seaward.

45:54

And unless they get about 10 CT of the abdomen pelvic all

45:58

during the first six weeks of pregnancy,

46:00

that's when one can get that amount of load.

46:03

And over the past, there are so many years of my experience,

46:06

I have not seen anybody get more than one CT of the abdomen

46:09

and pelvic area during pregnancy.

46:11

The next question is, is it recommended to shield

46:14

pregnant patient when not imaging in the pelvic area?

46:17

No, actually there is no need to actually, this is one

46:20

of the things which we are tackling for a long time

46:24

and in the past we used to assume that putting an apron, uh,

46:28

in the, in the pregnant patient when they do a chest CT

46:31

or a head CT will uh, protect it.

46:33

That is no longer true and it's not true

46:36

because we cannot protect internal scatter

46:39

and the radiation, scatter radiation is not so strong

46:41

to reflect off the walls and hit the pregnant.

46:44

On the other hand, it can give a false

46:46

comfort to the pregnant.

46:47

In fact, if you notice that dentist, dentist, if you go

46:51

to dental x-rays dentist

46:53

and when they take an x-ray, they is

46:54

to put a shield on your chest

46:56

and even they have now recommended against it.

46:59

There is no use of putting any shield during the, um, uh,

47:03

imaging, uh, uh, during, uh, dental or any of the x-rays.

47:07

They're not any helpful.

47:09

So I have few more slides I wanna just

47:12

show these are fundamental.

47:13

Uh, one is the how does the inverse square

47:16

applicable in radiology.

47:18

And the way it works is like inverse law work

47:21

to our advantage in radiation protection

47:23

because further away you stand from the source,

47:27

the the radiation reaching will decrease

47:29

by one square one over R square.

47:32

For example, here, this is an average sized patient and,

47:37

and every black.is a scatter radiation.

47:40

And you can see, and this is a 50 meter block,

47:42

50 centimeter block.

47:44

So if, if you stand one meter away,

47:46

look at the scatter you're getting compared

47:48

to standing one very close to.

47:50

So this is very advantage to ourself as one.

47:53

Our R score, again, this come up from the ICRP report,

47:57

1 33 telling

47:58

that further away you stand from the x-ray source,

48:01

less scatter radiation you're gonna get.

48:04

And the way I I picture myself in the scatter radiation is

48:08

imagine in the x-ray room, the patient as the body

48:11

of the butterfly and the scatter radiation coming outta the

48:15

patient is the, is the wings of a butterfly.

48:18

The wing of a butterfly is thicker, closer to the body

48:21

and thinner at the edge.

48:22

And the same analogy goes

48:24

for the scatter radiation is very high, closer

48:26

to the patient and decreases quite dramatically

48:30

as you go down away from the patient.

48:33

So one other concept which I want

48:35

to discuss is the patient thickness has the patient

48:37

thickness increases in fluoroscopy,

48:40

so does the scatter radiation reaching the fluoroscopist

48:44

I I wanna draw here is like this,

48:46

this is 11 milligram per minute,

48:48

that is the intense skin dose

48:50

and the dap reading is multiplied by the area.

48:53

Look at here, this is a two milligram per hour.

48:56

This is cent milli minute and this is milligram hour.

49:00

And you can see here for one hour, if they do the procedure

49:03

of this patient, they may get two milligram here.

49:06

By the time it treats the badges further away from here,

49:09

they get about 0.25 milligram per hour.

49:11

That's why wearing a lead apron is pretty protective,

49:14

which covers three fourths of four body.

49:17

If the patient size is large,

49:19

the fluoroscopic system automatically

49:22

dried the radiation higher.

49:24

Therefore here the patient is getting eight times more

49:27

dose than this one.

49:29

So does the scatter radiation increases.

49:31

Now instead of getting 0.25 milli hour per milligram,

49:34

per uh, per the entire hour,

49:36

it'll get about 0.5 milligram per hour.

49:39

So that's the rule of thumb.

49:41

I wish you best and if you have any question,

49:44

please chat, put it on the chat.

49:46

Otherwise I wish all the best

49:48

and uh, good luck for the exam.

49:51

Excellent, thank you so much again, Dr.

49:52

Mahesh, and thank you. Thank you.

49:54

And thank you to everyone for participating

49:56

and joining us for these rapid case reviews.

49:59

You can access the recording of today's case review

50:01

and previous case reviews by creating a free account.

50:04

Good luck on the boards and thank you for learning with us.

50:07

We'll see you soon.

Report

Faculty

Mahadevappa Mahesh, PhD, FACR, MS, FAAPM, FACMP, FSCCT, FIOMP

Professor of Radiology and Cardiology

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Tags

Vascular Imaging

Pediatrics

Nuclear Medicine

Neuroradiology

Musculoskeletal (MSK)

Interventional

Head and Neck

Genitourinary (GU)

Gastrointestinal (GI)

Chest

Cardiac

Breast

Body