EVALUATION OF X-RAY EQUIPMENT PERFORMANCE IN SOME GOVERNMENT HOSPITALS IN KADUNA CITY, KADUNA, NIGERIA

Background: In low- and middle-income countries, imaging equipment is frequently left unmonitored for extended periods of time, and only during inspections for licensing purposes is its quality assessed in terms of performance evaluation and quality control Objective: The objective of this study was to conduct an evaluation of X-ray equipment performance in some government hospitals in Kaduna city, Kaduna state, Nigeria Method: In this investigation, three (3) facilities were deliberately visited. At each hospital, Xray equipment was subjected to quality control (QC) testing, and the X-ray rooms were physically inspected. Hospitals execute the following quality control tests: radiation dosage levels, radiation leakage, half value layer, beam alignment, peak tube voltage, mA linearity, and entrance skin dose. Using a survey meter (RADOS model RDS-120), the radiation dose levels in each X-ray room were measured. Results: The acquired data revealed that only Hospital 1 and Hospital 2 exhibited a high level of compliance. Hospital 1 and Hospital 2 passed the radiation leakage test with results below the tolerance limit of 1.0 mSv/hr, demonstrating compliance with the norm. Hospital 3 passed the Half-value layer test, and all three hospitals passed the beam alignment test. Hospitals 1 and 2 passed the peak tube voltage (kVp) test because the co-efficient of variation between the set kVp and measured kVp was less than 0.05. Only Hospital 2 passed the mA linearity test, since its coefficient of linearity was 0.08, which is below the permitted level of 0.1. The outcome of the entrance skin dose (ESD) test revealed that all of the hospitals fell under the international and national tolerance limits, which is deemed safe for both patients and employees. Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that the government hospitals in the Kaduna city are slightly in compliance with national and international standards. The visual inspection performed on the hospitals revealed that they retain a high degree of compliance to the standard.