Dose reduction – automatic exposure control vs manual exposure

Introduction

Optimising radiation dose is the moral, professional and legal duty of radiographers^{1, 2}. Reducing dose lowers the risk of the stochastic and deterministic effects of ionising radiation to the patient. This requires radiographers to ensure, through the controlling of technical factors (particularly exposure factors), that the dose is as low as possible while still providing an image of adequate diagnostic quality³.

When selecting the appropriate exposure factors for a particular patient and examination, the radiographer relies on their knowledge, training and experience to guide them on what settings are appropriate⁴. Patient morphology, area of interest and the equipment must be considered⁵. Naturally, this is subject to variations in the perceptions between radiographers, resulting in an additional source of disparity and inaccuracy in the selection of exposure factors in practice^{5, 6}.

A primary...