Assessment of patient dose in diagnostic radiology: A new dose concept for the lymphatic tissue

Diagnostic radiography is a leading cause of man-made radiation exposure to the population. Individual risk assessment and analytic epidemiologic studies likewise require retrospective assessment of lifelong exposure from medical sources. Typical schemes attempt to determine accumulated doses of specific „critical organs“. The organ dose to the red bone marrow is relevant in studies of diseases like leukemias and malignant lymphomas and there are comprehensive data bases to determine the red bone marrow organ dose of typical radiologic examinations. On the other hand a considerable proportion of the non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas are assumed to develop outside the bone marrow compartment. For these a new dose concept for the lymphatic tissue was derived. Tables with conversion factors for typical examinations in diagnostic radiology (conventional radiography, functional radiography with contrast media and computed tomography) are provided that allow the calculation of the doses of the lymphatic tissue from doses of the red bone marrow.