Estimation of conversion coefficients from dose-area product to effective dose for barium meal examinations for adult patients

The aim of the current study was to establish conversion coefficients (CCs) from dose-area product to effective dose for most common barium meal (BM) fluoroscopic examination. The study was based on data collection in two X-ray rooms in a major university hospital in St-Petersburg, Russia that allowed evaluating a structure of BM fluoroscopic examinations and developing a computed model of effective dose estimation using PCXMC 2.0 software. Results indicate that effective doses and the CCs were mainly influenced by the structure (contribution of different projections) and by the parameters (field size and energy characteristics of the X-ray beam) of the fluoroscopic examination. Resulting values of CCs estimated in the study were comparable with the published data for BM examinations