Abstract The increasing use of ionizing radiation in medical field is at present by far the largest source of exposure of the population. For this reason, radiation protection measures should be taken by each country to prevent unnecessary radiation exposure. Medical Physicists play a key role in patient dose management. Entrance skin dose (ESD) is one of the basic dosimetry quantities for patient dose assessment in diagnostic radiology. The purpose of this work is to survey patient doses undergoing radiographic examinations and to perform comparisons with the international Diagnostic Reference Levels (DRL). The study was done in nine (9) hospitals. Results showed that patient doses were below the reference doses published by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the European Commission (EC) for seven hospitals and higher than these reference levels for two hospitals. It was derived that obtained values can be useful for the implementation of the regulation with regards to patient protection from medical exposure in Madagascar.
Keywords Diagnostic radiology, entrance skin dose, patient protection, reference level.