Chapter 1
Introduction
Fluoroscopy is a massively functional interventional procedures capable of studying or
investigating possible pathology in certain organs or systems. However, fluoroscopically guided
interventional procedures are infamous for its’ high amount of scatter radiation during the procedure
and with the increasing number of such procedures, the amount of scatter radiation exposed to the
radiology staff increased as well (Samara et al., 2022). With this problem in hand, a solution is required
to reduce the received scatter radiation dose on the radiology staffs. Even with the aids lead shield
such as lead gown and thyroid shield, there are still some amount of scatter radiation that is received
(Samara et al., 2022).
The study’s significance is to facilitate in recognizing areas around the fluoroscopy room of
the Radiology Department of Hospital Sultan Abdul Halim (HSAH) that have a higher scatter radiation
dose and in a way assisting the radiology staffs in minimizing radiation risk imposed upon them. This
study is also capable of bringing to light about the amount of scatter radiation they might receive
during fluoroscopic exams commonly done in the Radiology Department of HSAH. This study is done
in the fluoroscopy room of the Radiology Department of Hospital Sultan Abdul Halim (HSAH) as there
is no such study previously done on this location yet.
This study’s objective is to identify the scatter radiation doses in the fluoroscopy room of the
Radiology Department in Hospital Sultan Abdul Halim (HSAH). Along with the previously stated main
objectives, this study also aims to identify areas within the fluoroscopy room that receive the most
radiation dose during commonly done procedures in HSAH such as Micturating Cystourethrogram for
both adult and paediatric patient, Hysterogram and Barium Swallow. With both of this objective in
mind, an exposure dose map of the fluoroscopy room is also established.
There is a need for an experimental study to be done at the fluoroscopy room in Radiology
Department of HSAH to measure the amount of scatter radiation received by the radiology staffs. With
the increasing number of fluoroscopically guided interventional procedures done, there come a need
to identify and map the areas within the fluoroscopy room in corresponding with the scatter radiation
imposed.
Hypothesis to be tested is whether the scatter radiation dose around the fluoroscopy room is
significant or not. Another hypothesis whether the are differences in scatter radiation dose around
the fluoroscopy room. There are some limitations to this study such as the amount of time the
cinefluorograhic mode of fluoroscopy is used is highly dependent on the operator and the attending
physician. As such, a constant time and pulse rate is used to simulate a constant x-ray beam for all
procedures and each data is collected 3 times to get the average value. It is assumed that there will
be differences in data and numbers are the intensity of the x-ray beam decreases as the distance
increases.