PRACTICAL IMPACT OF THE EVOLUTION AND CHANGES OF ICRP RECOMMENDATIONSON RADIOLOGICAL PROTECTION IN MEDICINE

The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) has giv en recommendations concerning the radiological protection of the patie nt in diagnostic radiology, nuclear medicine and radiation therapy, as well as of the worker in medicine and dentistry. In spite of these ea rlier recommendations, the situation in medicine is far from optimal s howing a wide distribution of patient doses among various departments and hospitals without any similar variation in diagnostic information. There is a special need to emphasise such areas, which have the poten tial of high patient dose and/or high risk, e.g. interventional radiog raphy, computed tomography, and paediatric radiology. For medical expo sures, ICRP (Publication 60) still indicates that if the practice is j ustified and the protection optimised, dose limits should not be appli ed. However, it does recommend the development of reference levels as a quantitative guide to optimisation. Consideration should also be giv en to potential accidents and intervention.