Background: Nowadays, angiography systems with flat digital panel are used in cardiology and invasive radiology as the detector of irradiation. The so called universal systems with a magnified panel are becoming more common. In this study we tried to find out whether in practice the increased surface area of detectors may increase the absorption dose in a patient.
Material and methods: The study included 486 patients who underwent coronary angiography carried out by the same physicians. In 268 subjects the procedure was performed in cathlab A equipped with a cardiac angiography system, whereas in 218 subjects in cathlab B using universal angiography system. In the study the absorbed dose of irradiation by the patient was determined and its ratio to body mass, body mass index (BMI) and body surface area (BSA) was evaluated.
Results: The mean dose absorbed by the person under study did not differ between both catheterization laboratories. Similarly, there were no differences in the ratio of the absorbed dose and BMI. But the comparison of the ratio of the absorbed dose and the body mass showed significantly higher values in cathlab A, where. higher values of the ratio of the absorbed dose and BSA were also found (p < 0.01).
Conclusions: In the present study it was found that the use of universal angiography systems with a larger surface area of the detecting panel is not connected with the increase in the irradiation dose absorbed by the patent during coronary angiography as compared with classical cardiac angiography systems.