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Occupational eye dose monitoring during interventional radiology and interventional cardiology is important to avoid radiation-induced cataracts. The aim of this study was to assess the eye dose correlation with neck dose and patient-related quantities for interventional cardiology physicians and nurses. The originality of this study lies in obtaining correlations between the location of the dosimeter and eye dose radiation readings among different procedures and practitioners. The doses were measured for each procedure (18 procedures of coronary angiography and 16 procedures of percutaneous coronary intervention) using an active personal dosimeter. The eye dose for physicians was not correlated with the neck dose. The eye dose for nurses had a good correlation with the neck dose during both coronary angiography (R2 = 0.91) and percutaneous coronary intervention (R2 = 0.93). Kerma-area product values may be used for a rough estimation of the eye dose for physicians during routine coronary angiography procedures (R2 = 0.76). For nurses, the neck dose is a good proxy for the eye dose during coronary angiography and percutaneous coronary intervention procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preprocedural computed tomography (CT) imaging appears to provide an advantage in localization of the appropriate septal branch targeted for alcohol septal ablation (ASA). The objective of this study was to compare the clinical backgrounds, procedural characteristics, and outcomes of patients who underwent ASA with preprocedural CT assessment against those without CT assessment. Thirty consecutive patients with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy who underwent ASA were retrospectively included. Patients who underwent preprocedural CT (CT-guided ASA group, n = 11) were compared with patients who underwent ASA without CT (traditional ASA group, n = 19). The CT-guided ASA group had a significantly lower number of approached target vessels (1 [interquartile range {IQR}, 1–2] vs. 2 [IQR, 2–3], P = 0.036) and non-ablated target vessels (0 [IQR, 0–1] vs. 1 [IQR, 0–2], P = 0.031) than the traditional ASA group. There were no differences between the two groups in total fluoroscopy time, the amount of delivered radiation dose, and the volume of contrast medium used during the procedures. There were also no differences between the two groups in procedural success rate and improvement of left ventricular outflow tract gradient and New York Heart Association functional class at 1 month follow-up. CT had a significant impact on the ASA procedure diminishing the number of target vessels, and could be a reliable assessment modality to build its procedural strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the use of diagnostic X-ray equipment with flat panel detectors (FPDs) has increased, so has the importance of proper management of FPD systems. To ensure quality control (QC) of FPD system, an easy method for evaluating FPD imaging performance for both stationary and moving objects is required. Until now, simple rotatable QC phantoms have not been available for the easy evaluation of the performance (spatial resolution and dynamic range) of FPD in imaging moving objects. We developed a QC phantom for this purpose. It consists of three thicknesses of copper and a rotatable test pattern of piano wires of various diameters. Initial tests confirmed its stable performance. Our moving phantom is very useful for QC of FPD images of moving objects because it enables visual evaluation of image performance (spatial resolution and dynamic range) easily. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]