RECOMMENDED ACTIONS FOR REDUCTION OF BREAST DOSES IN THE AREA OF MADRID - AN EVALUATION

During the period 1989-91, breast doses and image quality were estimat ed in seventeen X ray units in the Madrid area. A basic quality contro l programme was also carried out. As a conclusion, several actions wer e recommended to the facilities in order to improve the mammographic e xaminations. In a second period (1992-93), the recommended actions wer e evaluated in terms of the variations of the collective equivalent br east dose per year (CEBD). The results showed that the most important savings in the CEBD were obtained with the use of the fastest films (2 18 person.Sv per year). A CEBD saving of 64 person.Sv per year also re sulted from the quality control programme. In addition, during this pe riod, several old X ray units were replaced. This action resulted in a n increase of 10 person.Sv per year which was 3.6% of the quoted CEBD savings.