EVALUATION OF DOSE LOADS AND QUALITY OF IMAGES IN SCREENING MAMMOGRAPHIC STUDIES

Abstract

Aim: to study the doses of irradiation of patients during mammographic screening at various types of mammographs and to assess the quality of the image using test objects, as well as to determine the radiation risk of additional cases of breast cancer due to screening tests. Materials and methods: determination of the average absorbed dose for the mammary gland was carried out on the basis of the results of evaluation of the radiation output of the apparatus, taking into account the conditions of exposure, the thickness of the compressed mammary gland and using correction factors. The quality control of the mammographic image on the used various types of mammographs was performed using the universal mammographic phantom CIRS. An assessment of the efficacy dose was performed based on the mean of the absorbed dose, taking into account the weights weighing coefficients. Results: for compressed glandular thickness 20–40 mm, the values ​​of absorbed doses exceeded the control level adopted in the European Union 1.4–2.0 times for all types of devices used. For the three groups of devices, the image quality criteria were not performed or performed in part, which may lead to a failure to fulfill the main task of mammography — visualization of small pathological structures that do not show themselves clinically and not visualized by other diagnostic methods. Conclusions: for the majority of devices used in Ukraine, the value of the absorbed dose for compressed mammary gland over 40 mm does not exceed the level adopted in the European Union. How­ever, the quality of the image was unsatisfactory. In order to increase screening efficiency, it is necessary to implement an image quality assurance program that will reduce the number of uninformative images and ca­ses of unreasonable exposure of patients.