New patient-controlled abdominal compression method in radiography: radiation dose and image quality

BACKGROUND: The radiation dose for patients can be reduced with many methods and one way is to use abdominal compression. In this study, the radiation dose and image quality for a new patient-controlled compression device were compared with conventional compression and compression in the prone position. PURPOSE: To compare radiation dose and image quality of patient-controlled compression compared with conventional and prone compression in general radiography. MATERIAL AND METHODS: An experimental design with quantitative approach. After obtaining the approval of the ethics committee, a consecutive sample of 48 patients was examined with the standard clinical urography protocol. The radiation doses were measured as dose-area product and analyzed with a paired t-test. The image quality was evaluated by visual grading analysis. Four radiologists evaluated each image individually by scoring nine criteria modified from the European quality criteria for diagnostic radiographic images. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in radiation dose or image quality between conventional and patient-controlled compression. Prone position resulted in both higher dose and inferior image quality. CONCLUSION: Patient-controlled compression gave similar dose levels as conventional compression and lower than prone compression. Image quality was similar with both patient-controlled and conventional compression and was judged to be better than in the prone position.