Table 2.

Effective Radiation Dose Values for Common Diagnostic Imaging Procedures and Background Radiation (mSV)

Chest radiograph	0.02
Roundtrip airplane NY to LA	0.03
Mammogram	0.13
Brain CT	1-2
Chest CT	5-7
Coronary artery calcium EBCT	0.6
Coronary artery calcium CT – MDCT prospective ECG-gating	1-3
Coronary CTA – prospective ECG-gating dose modulation (80 kV)	2-4
Background radiation in the US	3.6 – (range 1-10)
Conventional coronary artery angiography	2-10
Rubidium PET stress test	4.9
Coronary CTA – retrospective ECG-gating	10-15 mSv
Sestamibi SPECT nuclear stress test	12-23
Cardiologist dose – conventional coronary artery angiography	0.1-5*
Nurse dose – conventional coronary artery angiography	0.01-0.5*

^*estimated annual dose

mSv milli Sieverts – effective radiation dose

References

[11] Fishman E. Cardiac CT: Where are we today and where are we going? Applied Radiol Supp. December 2006; 5-8.

[13] McCollough CH et. al. Dose performance of a 64-channel dual-source CT scanner. Radiol (2007); 243(3): 775-784.