The Influence of Radiologist’s Technique on Patient Dose in Barium Studies

Since the publication of ICRP60, there has been a considerable amount of work carried out by many to reduce the dose received by patients during common fluoroscopy procedures. This has included equipment improvements, optimisation of equipment, use of fast film/screen combinations, etc. Papers have been published showing large dose savings can be made by attention to equipment (1, 2), but also numbers of papers have been published which have commented that dose can vary considerably depending on the clinical technique (3-12). These comments do not appear to have been noticed by the radiological community at large, many suggest that dose can be reduced by careful clinical radiological technique.