Correlation of Entrance Skin Dose with Body Mass Index of Patients Undergoing Routing X-Ray Examination at Federal Teaching Hospital Gombe, North-Eastern Nigeria

This study was conducted to assess the amount of dose received by patients undergoing routine x-ray examinations at Federal Teaching Hospital, Gombe in Gombe State, Nigeria. Entrance skin doses (ESDs) for different kinds of x-ray procedures, include Posterior Anterior (PA) and Lateral (Lat) chest, Anterior Posterior (AP) Abdomen, AP pelvis, AP and Lat lumber spine and PA and Lat skull were assessed using standard exposure parameters. Data were obtained from eighty (80) patients who were exposed to diagnostic X-ray during their regular X-ray examinations. The patients’ age ranged from 1 to 80 years, while the weight was between 20kg and 100kg and height of these patients was between 95.0cm and 171cm. The skin dose of each patient was evaluated using a formula, based on the radiographic exposure parameters of kVp, mAS, SSD, the X-ray tube and the total filtration of the beams. The mean entrance skin dose ranged from 0.016 mGy to 3.168 mGy. Eventually, the ESDs measured for these x-ray procedures were found to be below the maximum permissible limits set by Nigeria Basic Ionizing Radiation Regulation and all the examinations conducted showed that there is a good correlation between the entrance skin doses and body mass index for the studied subjects. This implies that patients with higher body mass index will received more dose than the patients with low body mass index.