Adult thoracic effective doses

Procedure	Modality	Average effective dose (mSv)	Number of chest radiographs (PA/lateral) with equivalent radiation dose
Chest radiograph (posteroanterior)	Conventional radiography	0.02	0.2
PA and lateral chest radiographs	Conventional radiography	0.1	1
Thyroid scan (iodine 123)	Nuclear medicine	1.9	19
Lung ventilation-perfusion scan	Nuclear medicine	2.2	22
Thoracic angiogram	Conventional fluoroscopy or interventional radiology	5	50
Parathyroid scan	Nuclear medicine	6.7	67
Conventional coronary angiogram	Conventional fluoroscopy or interventional radiology	7	70
CT chest	Computed tomography	8	80
Nuclear cardiac stress test	Nuclear medicine	9.4-12.8	94-128
Cardiac PET	Nuclear medicine	14.1	141
CT pulmonary embolism protocol	Computed tomography	15	150
Coronary angioplasty or stent	Conventional fluoroscopy or interventional radiology	15	150
CT coronary angiogram	Computed tomography	16	160

CT: computed tomography; PET: positron-emission tomography.

Data from:

Mettler, FA, Huda, W, Yoshizumi, TT, Mahesh, M. Effective doses in radiology and diagnostic nuclear medicine: a catalog. Radiology 2008; 248:254.
Smith-Bindman, R, Lipson, J, Marcus, R, et al. Radiation dose associated with common computed tomography examinations and the associated lifetime attributable risk of cancer. Arch Intern Med 2009; 169:2078.
Shrimpton, PC, Hillier, MC, Lewis, MA, Dunn, M. National survey of doses from CT in the UK: 2003. Br J Radiol 2006; 79:968.
Diederich, S, Lenzen, H. Radiation exposure associated with imaging of the chest: comparison of different radiographic and computed tomography techniques. Cancer 2000; 89:2457.

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