Diagnostic Reference Level in Frontal Chest X-Ray in Western Côte d’Ivoire

Our study aims to determine diagnostic reference levels (DRL) for chest front examination in postero anterior (PA) for optimizing patient entrance surface dose (ESD) and dose-area product (DAP) of patients in west of Cote d’Ivoire. 90 patients from three hospitals undergoing conventional radiology were considered. The ESD and DAP for each patient were obtained during chest radiography (PA) examination. The measurements were performed with the device call Dose-Area Product-meter (DAP-meter) with brand Diamentor M4-KDK, type 11017. The DRL were obtained in applying the 75th percentile statistical method to the obtained ESD and DAP. The obtained DRL in ESD for chest radiography for all rooms is 0.40 mGy and in DAP is 54.85 cGy⋅cm2. Our DRL for ESD is higher than those obtained in Abidjan District and in other countries like UK and Cameroon. Our DRL for DAP is higher than those from Abidjan and all other countries for which a similar study was made. The comparison of these values to those from Abidjan and other countries, shows us that radiology technicians can make efforts to choose radiological parameters to reduce ESD. They must use convenable the X-rays tube to reduce DAP by reducing the patient exposure surface.