Determination of mean glandular dose from routine mammography for two age groups of patients

An objective of mammographic screening is an early detection of breast cancer. At this moment there is no any known or published data about doses for women included into mammography screening in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Hence, a potential risk of cancerogenesis caused by radiation in this procedure is increasing. The object of this research was to define a mean glandular dose (MGD) at mediolateral (MLO) and craniocaudal (CC) projection for every individual breast and a total dose for a whole mammographic examination at the Radiology Clinic (of the University of Sarajevo Clinics Centre) for two different age groups (age: 40 – 49 and 50 - 64). Dose estimates were made for 63 patients who were subdued to a routine mammographic examination and they involved corrections in regard to variations of age, breast thickness and applied clinical spectra. A mean MGD for women between 40 and 49 was 1, 64 mGy for a MLO screen and 1, 36 mGy for a CC screen. For a group between 50 and 64 mean MGD was 1, 74 mGy for a MLO screen and 1, 45 mGy for a CC screen. Differences of MGD at MLO and CC examination are caused by a huger thickness of a compressed breast at MLO projection, which is 9 - 11 % huger than on CC projection. According to a performed correlation analysis one defined a remarkable significance between MGD and thickness of a compressed breast for MLO and CC screens ; the first age group (MLO: r=0, 852 , p < 0, 01 ; CC : r = 0, 817, p < 0, 01) and the second age group (MLO : r = 0, 721, p < 0, 01 ; CC : r = 0, 674 , p < 0, 01). MGD for the whole mammographic examination was 3, 11 mGy and it was significantly connected to breast thickness (r= 0, 77 , p < 0, 01).