Radiologic dosing in vascular imaging studies

Procedure	Modality	Average effective dose (mSv)	Number of chest radiographs (PA/lateral) with equivalent radiation dose*
CT pelvis	Computed tomography	6	60
CT abdomen	Computed tomography	8	80
CT chest	Computed tomography	8	80
Whole-body screening CT	Computed tomography	12	120
CT angiogram aorta	Computed tomography	24	240
CT pulmonary embolism protocol	Computed tomography	15	150
Thoracic angiogram	Conventional fluoroscopy or interventional radiology	5	50
Abdominal angiogram	Conventional fluoroscopy or interventional radiology	12	120
Whole-body PET	Nuclear medicine	14.1	141

mSv: millisievert; PA: posterior-anterior; CT: computed tomography; PET: positron emission tomography.
* PA and lateral chest radiograph = 0.1 mSv.

Data from:

Mettler FA, Huda W, Yoshizumi TT, Mahesh M. Effective doses in radiology and diagnostic nuclear medicine: a catalog. Radiology 2008; 248:254.
Smith-Bindman R, Lipson J, Marcus R, et al. Radiation dose associated with common computed tomography examinations and the associated lifetime attributable risk of cancer. Arch Intern Med 2009; 169:2078.
Shrimpton PC, Hillier MC, Lewis MA, Dunn M. National survey of doses from CT in the UK: 2003. Br J Radiol 2006; 79:968.
Diederich S, Lenzen H. Radiation exposure associated with imaging of the chest: comparison of different radiographic and computed tomography techniques. Cancer 2000; 89:2457.

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