[Structure of the meeting of the german radiological society and scientific discourse pertaining to radiation dose and dose reduction: an analysis of 1998 - 2008].

PURPOSE

Evaluation of the emphasis of themes pertaining to radiation dose and dose reduction at the Meeting of the German Radiological Society from 1998 - 2008 in comparison to international data.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Retrospective analysis of 9440 abstracts with documentation of study presentation character, type of imaging, and examined body region. Abstracts stating radiation dose or primarily dealing with radiation dose/dose reduction were documented. Results were compared with a Pubmed query.

RESULTS

The percentage of purely scientific presentations sank in the observation period from 88 to 66 %. While contributions dealing with MRI sank from 48 to 34 %, those dealing with CT rose from 30 to 34 %. The percentage of abstracts dealing with radiation dose rose from 7 to 10 %, while that of work primarily pertaining to dose/dose reduction grew from 4 to 6 % and 2 to 4 %, respectively. Of all abstracts concerning CT, 15 % touched on radiation dose, while 9 % and 6 % primarily dealt with dose and dose reduction. The respective numbers for cardiac CT, whose relative share of all CT abstracts rose from 3 % in 1998 to 12 % in 2008, were 10 %, 7 %, and 5 %. An online query produced 137,791 publications on CT, and 2 % of these abstracts mentioned radiation dose and 0.5 % mentioned dose reduction.

CONCLUSION

The number of presentations dealing with dose at the Meeting of the German Radiological Society has risen with time and is higher than the international number. On the other hand, > 90 % of all presentations and > 85 % of all CT abstracts do not mention radiation dose. In light of increasing public concern relating to radiation exposure, more intensive research of these themes is warranted.