ABSTRACT
Background: Different kinds and models of personal dosimeters are used in individual monitoring by workers. Performance testing as part of approval procedures is carried out to demonstrate that the essential performance specifications are routinely maintained. There are four service providers in Iran which use different luminescence techniques [i. e. TLD and RPL] with various kinds of dosimeter materials/reader instruments in personal dosimetry services. Materials and Methods: A national performance approval tests program was performed for the dosimeters of the service providers in energy range of soft, 660 keV and 1.25 MeV, at the doses values around the recoding, investigation and annual dose limits, and different angle of incidents [e. g. 0, 20, 40 and 60 degree]. Results: The results of this testing satisfies the overall accuracy criteria with 95% confidence levels specified by the ICRP, except that of RPL technique in low energy which overestimates the dose out of the acceptable accuracy band defined as the ICRP trumpet curves. Conclusion: The inter-comparison has proved that the personal dose equivalent quantity, H[p][10], defined by the ICRU and recommended by the IAEA are becoming widely accepted and implemented in most participated laboratories
ABSTRACT
Acute coronary syndromes [ACS] and sudden cardiac death are the main causes of morbidity and mortality in the world. ACS are often the first manifestation of coronary artery disease, and the rupture of a coronary plaque is the main cause of ACS. Histopathological studies have revealed that the majority of thrombi result from plaque rupture. Grayscale intravascular ultrasonography [IVUS], a tomographic imaging tool, can visualize coronary atherosclerosis in vivo, elucidating plaque area, plaque distribution, lesion length, and coronary remodeling. IVUS has demonstrated the discrepancies between the extent of atherosclerosis seen by coronary angiography and the actual extent of atherosclerotic disease. Quantitative assessment of plaque composition has, however, not been possible with grayscale IVUS analysis, until now