Breast Dose

Measuring the mean glandular dose to the standard breast has for many years been the main means of assessing the doses from mammographic systems. Although this is a valuable and simple approach to dose measurement it provides limited information on the doses received by individual women. Consequently the periodic measurement of doses for samples of women undergoing mammographic examinations is recommended. The NHSBSP has published software (written by NCCPM) to calculate and store the results of such dose surveys.


Form displaying graph of doses against thickness

The use of this software helps standardise dose measurements and simplify procedures for national reviews of radiation doses in the NHS Breast Screening Programme. The software incorporates the changes in the UK dosimetry protocol outlined by Dance et al (Phys.Med.Biol,45:3225-3240,2000).

2D, Contrast Enhanced and Tomosynthesis Systems

A modified version of the software, for use with tomosynthesis systems, can be downloaded here and the manual can be downloaded here.

Software to Extract Patient Dose

New software to extract patient dose is available here

A draft user guide is available here