The effect of breast shielding during lumbar spine radiography

Background. The aim of the study was to determine the influence of lead shielding on the dose to female breasts in conventional x-ray lumbar spine imaging. The correlation between the body mass index and the dose received by the breast was also investigated.

Materials and methods. Breast surface dose was measured by thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLD). In the first phase measurements of breast dose with and without shielding from lumbar spine imaging in two projections were conducted on an anthropomorphic phantom. In the second stage measurements were performed on 100 female patients, randomly divided into two groups of 50, with breast shielding only used in one group.

Results. On average, breast exposure dose in lumbar spine imaging in both projections (anteroposterior (AP) and lateral) was found reduced by approximately 80% (p < 0,001) when shielding with 0.5 mm lead equivalent was used (from 0.45±0.25 mGy to 0.09±0.07 mGy on the right and from 0.26±0.14 mGy to 0.06±0.04 mGy on the left breast). No correlation between the body mass index (BMI) and the breast surface radiation dose was observed.

Conclusions. Although during the lumbar spine imaging breasts receive low-dose exposure even when shielding is not used, the dose can be reduced up to 80% by breast shielding with no influence on the image quality.