It is necessary to reduce the exposure doses from both fluoroscopy and angiocardiography. Pulsed fluoroscopy clearly reduces patients' exposure. By contrast, whether digital acquisition reduces patients' exposure is not clear. This study simulated the skin radiation doses of patients in cardiac catheterization laboratories with various radiography systems used in percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty to determine whether digital acquisition reduces patient exposure as compared with cine film recording.
Department of Radiological Technology, College of Medical Sciences, Tohoku University, 2-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8575, Japan. chida@rad.cms.tohoku.ac.jp <chida@rad.cms.tohoku.ac.jp>
