Evaluation of dose-area product received by patients undergoing iliac and peripheral leg artery angioplasty with two different angiography machines

Radiation safety is turned into a cornerstone of patient safety during interventional radiology (IR) procedures. With increasing number of IR procedures, consequences and amount of radiation dose received by patients is becoming an essential question. A study was carried to evaluate the difference of dose-area product (DAP) between two fluoroscopy machines in one of IR departments in Latvia. Study included patients, who underwent iliac artery and peripheral leg artery IR procedures – iliac artery percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA), femoral artery PTA, a.poplitea PTA, crural artery PTA. Directly measured DAP (mGy/cm2) from two different generation angiography machines, Philips Allura Xper FD 20/10 and Philips Azurion Clarity 7 B20/15, time and type of procedure in interventional radiology department during 2019 year were used for retrospective analysis. Descriptive and analytical statistics were performed using the SPSSv26 software. Our study group comprised 290 patients: 139 in iliac PTA group, 96 in femoral and popliteal PTA, 55 in crural PTA. Median DAP between modern and former generation machines in iliac artery PTA was 80.00 [Confidence interval: 56.60-116.00] and 250.23 [177.24-294.25] respectively (p=0.0001), in femoral and popliteal artery PTA 57.32 [43.36-70.64] vs 61.00 [48.11-81.67] respectively (p=0.0001), in crural artery PTA 45.40 [19.65-102.54] vs 76.69 [58.40-109.92] respectively (p=0.0001). Correlation between DAP and operator was found only in femoral and popliteal PTA group (p=0.037). There was no significant correlation between time of procedure and different machines in all three groups. To our knowledge, there were no previous studies exploring peripheral artery procedure DAP in Latvian facilities. We have found significant DAP difference between two angiography machines, which was not affected by the time of procedure or operator in iliac and crural PTA groups.