The European Protocol on dosimetry in mammography: Applicability and results in Belgium

According to the ALARA concept, the dose received by the patient during a radiological examination should be kept 'as low as reasonably achievable'. The dosimetric results were compared of two approaches of the 'European Protocol on Dosimetry in Mammography', Report EUR 16263: the protocol proposed for facilities where dosimetry can be performed by a physicist, and for those where this cannot be done locally. An additional outcome of this work is a 'photograph' of the doses given in Belgium in large (university) hospitals and smaller (private) practices. Measurements were performed on-phantom for all the centres and on a set of patients for one centre. All the centres were within the proposed dose limits. There was no significant difference between the results obtained with the two methods proposed by the protocol. The document EUR 16263 offers a good tool for evaluation of remote mammography units without permanent physics support.