Medical diagnostic imaging: radiation safety issues. Review

Development of radiological technologies and their use not only for military but for civilian purposes, especially in medicine, necessitates scientifically substantiated assessment of safety of radiological medical procedures for patients. IAEA International safety standards published in 2011 considers three types of radiation exposure situations: planned, emergency and existing, and three categories of radiation exposures: occupational, public and medical. Medical radiological exposure refers to the planned exposure situation, however, it is considered separately. The paper presents the review of published studies of possible health risks from medical radiological procedures, as well as available methods for assessment of health risk from radiological imaging. Fluorography, X-ray radiography, computed tomography (CT). PET, PET-CT are common radiological procedures. CT and radionuclide imaging are the main contributors to the collective dose from radiological procedures; though the annual percent of CT and radionuclide diagnostics is 3.3%, their contribution to the annual radiation dose from all radiological imaging procedures is 47.8%. To date, no unified approach to the assessment of health risks from medical imaging is available. The known methods have their specific limits and assumptions, unsuitable for the assessment of individual health risks, or the methods difficult for practical use. At the same time, in accordance with the international safety standards a patient should be informed of possible adverse effects of radiological procedures and health risks from exposure to radiation. The development of the easy-to-use method for evaluating individual health risk associated with medical imaging is a matter of great importance for radiation protection of a patient. It has to be addressed in the nearest future.