Estimated collective effective dose to the population from radiological examinations in Slovenia

Objectives: To systematically evaluate population exposure from diagnostic and interventional radiological procedures in Slovenia. Methods: The study was conducted in scope of the “Dose Datamed 2” project. A standard methodology based on 20 selected radiological procedures was adopted. Frequencies of the procedures were determined via questionnaires that were sent to all providers of radiological procedures while data about patient exposure per procedure were collected from existing databases. Collective effective dose to the population and effective dose per capita were estimated from the collected data using dose conversion factors. Results: The total collective effective dose to the population from radiological and nuclear medicine procedures in 2011 was estimated to 1400 manSv and an effective dose per capita to 0.7 mSv of which almost 60% are due to CT procedures. Conclusions: The results show that population exposure from medical procedures in Slovenia is under the European average.