Determination of Diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) for frontal chest radiology of adult patients at Regional Hospital Center of Daloa, Côte D'Ivoire

Although, diagnostic radiology is important in medical field, it significantly contributes to the irradiation of patients. One of the major goals of medical imaging is to minimize the radiation dose to the patient without compromising the image quality needed to produce an accurate diagnosis. Therefore, it is necessary to establish the diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) in radiology in order to achieve this goal. This study aimed to determine the DRLs for the chest radiological examination at the Regional Hospital of Daloa. A DAP meter was used to acquire the dose-area product (DAP) and air kerma data of 127 adult patients (≥ 18 years) undergoing chest examinations in the radiology room. Then the Entrance Surface Dose (ESD) calculated by weighting the dose in air by the BSF backscatter factor and DRLs in DAP and ESD were determined with the 75th percentile statistical method. The key findings showed a variation of 2.69 to 500.47cGy.cm2 and 0.388 to 10.104 mGy respectively for DAP and ESD with means of 52.314 cGy.cm2 and 2.279 mGy respectively. The respective values of DRL in DAP and ESD found in this work were 60.91 cGy.cm2 and 2.658 mGy. The comparison of the DRL values in DAP and ESD found in this work with others values has shown that they were lower than the national and international values of DRLs. This study was essential for RHC of Daloa because it has evaluated the patient doses and indicated that these doses are quietly optimized.