A French survey on practices of identifying and monitoring patients undergoing interventional radiology procedures

Purpose

To take stock of practices in France in terms of the criteria and methods for detecting and monitoring patients at-risk who have undergone interventional procedures.

Materials and methods

A questionnaire was sent to all members of the Imaging-Section at the SFPM. The questions concerned the type and value of alert thresholds reached during interventional procedures requiring the expertise of a medical physicist, thresholds leading to systematic patient follow-up, established follow-up procedures and also organizational questions. Data were collected for 4 interventional specialties, independently.

Results

Twenty French centers participated in the study for one or more interventional specialties. Only 2 centers used different thresholds for different interventional specialties. The dosimetric indicators most often used for alert thresholds were a combination of Dose-Area-Product (DAP) plus Air-Kerma (AK; 35 %) and AK alone (30 %). For DAP, the predominant alert threshold values were 300 Gy.cm² (23 %) and 500 Gy.cm² (18 %), and 3 Gy (41 %) and 5 Gy (23 %) for AK. The most commonly-used dosimetric indicator for patient follow-up was peak skin dose (80 %) alone or in combination with another dosimetric indicator. The most common follow-up threshold values were 3 Gy (50 %) and 5 Gy (33 %). Previous examinations in the same anatomical region were taken into account over periods of 2 months (30 %) and 3 months (30 %) and the most common type of follow-up was the patient consultation alone or combined with self-monitoring.

Conclusion

This national survey study showed that at-risk patients were monitored in all centers, that there were heterogeneities between centers in the way patients are identified and monitored.