| dc.description.abstract | The increased radiosensitivity in women
compared to men is a greater concern in diagnostic
radiology, which uses ionization radiation for the
purpose of diagnosis. However, radiation protection
authorities, such as the international commission on
radiation protection (ICRP) have only focused on the
average adult when giving radiation protection
recommendations, such as diagnostic reference
levels (DRL). The present study aimed to evaluate
the gender wise variation in delivered radiation dose
during common X-ray projections. The dose area
product (DAP) values of six X-ray projections were
recorded for 658 adult patients (393 male and 265
female) of same age range of 18 to 83 years who
underwent routine X-rays at two hospitals. A gender
wise comparison between the resultant average DAP
values showed that the females received a higher
mean dose than the males during abdomen
anteroposterior (AP) (230.0 μGy.m2), kidney-ureterbladder
(KUB) (323.8 μGy.m2) and pelvis AP (268.3
μGy.m2). In addition, males also received higher
doses of 124.1 μGy.m2, 388.0 μGy.m2 and 16.3
μGy.m2 respectively for lumbar spine AP, lateral and
chest posteroanterior (PA). However, these
differences were significant only in chest PA and
lumbar spine lateral projections (P=0.000 and
0.001). Therefore, the authorities should focus on
subpopulations rather than consider an average
adult when providing dose recommendations and
guidelines on radiation protection. However, indepth
and large-scale studies are required to
support the idea of gender-based DRLs in the future. | en_US |
