Determination of Entrance Surface Dose for Patients Undergoing Conventional Chest X-ray Examination at Radiology Department, Federal Teaching Hospital (FTH) Katsina.

Concern regarding the radiation doses to patients exposed to x-ray during radiography examination has increased on a global scale. With chest x-ray radiography as the most common performed radiography examination, this study assessed the doses patients undergoing chest x-ray radiography are exposed to, through measurement of ESD (entrance surface dose) exposed at radiology department federal, medical center Katsina, using both direct and indirect methods for the purpose of diagnostic reference levels (DRL). Thermoluminescence (TLD) dosimeter is used for the direct measurements, while Tin and Tsai formula (mathematical equation) and CALDODE_X 5.0 software are used for the indirect measurements. The Entrance Surface Dose (ESD) was found to be; Tin and Tsai:  0.15 mGy (Chest AP), 0.12 mGy (Chest PA), 0.21 mGy (Chest lateral), with CALDODE_X: 0.23 mGy (Chest AP), 0.19 mGy (Chest PA), 0.31 mGy (Chest lateral), and TLD: 0.22 mGy (Chest AP), 0.20 mGy (Chest PA), 0.37 mGy (Chest lateral), and were all below the DRLs recommended by national and international regulatory authorities. The comparison of this study with other international and local reference levels shows that the LDRs from this study were lower than other international and local diagnostic reference levels for the three employed methods and for both projections.