Radiation Safety in Pediatric Interventional Radiology.

Tech Vasc Interv Radiol. 2010 Sep;13(3):158-166

Authors: Sidhu M, Strauss KJ, Connolly B, Yoshizumi TT, Racadio J, Coley BD, Utley T, Goske MJ

Pediatric interventional radiology procedures are becoming increasingly common in the medical community, in part due to the significant medical benefit derived from these studies. At the same time, the medical radiation used for these studies contributes to the radiation dose to this unique population of patients. As children are more sensitive to radiation than adults and have a longer lifetime to manifest those changes, a concerted effort should be made toward radiation protection in this setting. Pediatric interventional procedures may differ from adult examinations in several ways, including the small size of the patient, the proximity of the operator’s body and hands to the beam, and small body spaces resulting in precarious wire purchase. We describe specific strategies to improve patient and staff safety. These include staff education, safety checklists, a team approach, and formalized review and quality assurance programs. Practical steps to reduce patient dose are reviewed, and tools to assist in achieving the goal of optimizing radiation safety in children undergoing interventional procedures are provided.

PMID: 20723830 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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The transit of dosage forms through the colon.

Int J Pharm. 2010 Jun 3;

Authors: Wilson CG

Colonic transit is a subject of great relevance when considering in vivo/in vitro relationships for oral controlled release dosage forms. Our knowledge of colonic motility has first come from the clinic, where measurement of the whole gut transit of different excreted markers was used as a method of discriminating pathologies. X-ray contrast, although widely available, was used sparing due to the accumulating dosimetry associated with each exposure. Although such methods were used for swallowing studies, gamma scintigraphy allowed physicians to measure colon function with a more moderate radiation burden. The ability to label meal and dosage form separately and to measure dispersion with more certainty, prompted the use in pharmaceutical sciences; finally, the relationship between blood concentrations and transit of different sized dosage began to be understood. This mini-review considers the development of colon transit measurements and how different designs of clinical assessment assist in elucidating size and shape influence on colon transit in man.

PMID: 20576492 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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