Relationship of body mass index on the radiation exposure of patient in diagnostic coronary angiogram through radial route by dose area product

Ionising radiation which is responsible for many side effects is very common among medical professionals like interventional cardiologists. Obesity is on the rise and one of the important risk factor for coronary artery disease. Incidentally it also leads to increased patient radiation and also the attending interventional cardiologist, catheterisation lab personnel according to some studies. Dose area product as a measure of radiation used to study the relationship of radiation to obesity in our single centre observational study. Study was conducted in single centre retrospective observational study. Body mass index calculated in Kg/ m. Dose area product was measured in Gy-cm. Patients who underwent diagnostic coronary angiogram for coronary artery disease through radial route was taken for study and were divided into four groups. Then analysed with SSPS software. Patient with body mass Index was divided into four groups and their distribution BMI, a. < 21.00 9.1 %, b. 21.01- 25.00 35.1%, c. 25.01-29.00 – 48.10 %, d. 29.0+ - 7.8 %. Compared with BMI < 25, a patient BMI≥ 40 was associated with 2.1 fold increase in patient radiation dose and 7 fold increase in physician radiation dose. Compared with BMI < 25, a patient BMI≥ 40 was associated with 2.1 fold increase in patient radiation dose and 7 fold increase in physician radiation dose. Our study group has predominantly between BMI of 21and 29. After confounding factors like catheter engagement difficult cases, radial spasm, anxious patients, BMI was not correlating with fluoroscopy time in our study group. According to our study patient radiation exposure as measured by Dose Area Product is incremental but statistically not significant enough to conclude positive correlation.