Table 1.

Effective doses for various examinations (per scan) using ionizing radiation

	Examination	Average effective dose, mSva	Reference
Background radiation level	–	2.4	[6]
X-ray	Thorax	0.1	[7]
CT diagnostic	Chest CT	6–8	[7, 8]
	Low-dose CT lung cancer screening	0.4–2.4	[8–10]
CT interventional	CT-TTNA	1–3.5	[11]
	Coronary angiography (diagnostic)	7	[7]
	Coronary percutaneous transluminal angioplasty, stent placement, or radiofrequency ablation	15	[7]

The reported effective dose is expressed in millisievert (mSv) and can serve as a reference in evaluating the radiation exposure in the field of intervention pulmonology.

CT, computed tomography; TTNA, transthoracic needle aspiration.

^aThe actual radiation exposure depends on many things including the imaging system used, the duration of imaging, patient size, patient positioning, and sensitivity of the tissue being targeted.