Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2012
Interventional cardiology procedures can involve potentiallyhigh doses of radiation to the patients. Stochastic effects of ionisingradiation – radiation-induced cancers in the long term – may occur.We analysed clinical characteristics and dosimetric data in a populationof patients undergoing interventional cardiology. In all, 1 591patients who had undergone coronarography and/or angioplasty inthe course of a year at the Saint-Gatien Clinic in Tours (France)were included. Information on patients’ individual clinical characteristicsand Dose-Area Product values were collected. Organ doses to thelung, oesophagus, bone marrow and breast were mathematically evaluated.The median age of patients was 70 years. Their median cumulativedose-area product value was 48.4 Gy.cm2 for the wholeyear and the median effective dose was 9.7 mSv. The median organdoses were 41 mGy for the lung, 31 mGy for the oesophagus, 10 mGyfor the bone marrow and 4 mGy for the breast. Levels of doses closeto the heart appear to be rather high in the case of repeated interventionalcardiology procedures. Clinical characteristics should be takeninto account when planning epidemiological studies on potential radiation-inducedcancers.