Reduced Radiation Dose in Diagnostic Radiology

which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Within the past 20 years, the radiographic examination in the medical field has increased by a factor of about 3 to 5 times, while the total radiation dose has increased by a factor of about 200-400. This has ascribed to the rapid increase in CT usage (1). The increased demand for CT scans has drawn the public's attention about radiological hazards and paved the way for the effort to reduce radiation exposure in every medical imaging field. There are some evidences why the radiation exposure management has become the most important issue nowadays. One study by Berrington et al. (2) estimated 29,000 cancer patients due to 70 million scans in the USA. The other study by Brenner and Hall (3) reported that 600,000 CTs performed on children under age 15 could lead to 500 deaths. CT scans for the pediatric imaging played a significant role in the raised incident rate of leukemia or brain tumors (4). Two things should be considered to reduce radiation exposure dose (5-7). The first one is justification. The justification is based by the fact that radiographic examinations are essential for the diagnosis, which needs to be recognized first and then the examination is carried out subsequently. Justification includes a legitimate explanation to patients, and this ought to be always considered with the ethical issues. The medical ethics and the healthcare environment ethics have to hold a dominant position. Physician autonomy over the prescription along with obligation has to be ensured for this process. If the qualification for justification is sufficed, the second conception, optimization, should be reckoned to reduce radiation exposure dose. In other words, provided the radiographic examination has been prescribed for the diagnosis, now think of how to minimize the detrimental effect from radiation. In spite of the minimum amount of radiation, it may produce delayed radiation damage such as cancer statistically 10-20 years later (8). That's why the dose of radiation has to be reduced to prevent radiation hazard. It is recommended to comply with a standard guide for radiographic examination to have the optimal imaging condition for a variety of situations and to wear proper radiation protection devices. If feasible, radiographic examinations have to be taken based on the principle of As Low As Reasonably Achievable (ALARA), which means that making every reasonable …