Ef fect of dif fer ent phan tom po si tions in lat eral lum bar spine ra di og ra phy on ef fec tive dose and ab sorbed dose to se lected or gans

This study aimed to in ves ti gate the dif fer ent po si tion ing of the pa tient in left and right lat eral po si tion dur ing lum bar spine ra di og ra phy and its ef fects on ef fec tive dose and ab sorbed dose for se lected or gans. The study was per formed on a Siemens Multix/Vertix X-ray unit us ing Agfa's computer radiography system. Two anthropomorphic phantoms (PBU 60 and RS 113T) were im aged in both lat eral pro jec tions with a tube volt age from 79 kV to 90 kV. The dose was mea sured with a DAP me ter placed un der the collimator of the X-ray unit. The ef fective dose and ab sorbed dose for se lected or gans were cal cu lated us ing the Monte Carlo sim ula tion programme PCXMC 2.0. Based on Monte Carlo sim u la tion cal cu la tions, the re sults of ef fec tive dose on a PBU 60 phan tom showed a de crease of 15.2 %, while the de crease in ef fective dose on a RS 113T phan tom was 14.2 % in fa vour of the right lat eral pro jec tion. An absorbed or gan dose to se lected or gans showed a sig nif i cant dose re duc tion for lymph nodes, pan creas, small in tes tine, spleen, and stom ach in fa vour of this pro jec tion. Based on the re sults, we can con clude that right lat eral pro jec tion should be the method of choice when im aging the lum bar spine in the lat eral pro jec tion.