The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), who is referred to as the Commission, has issued many reports providing advice on radiological protection and safety in medicine. Publication 73 was a general overview for the addressed area. ICRP Publication 73 acts as a clarification of the recommendation radiological protection system. The system mentioned refers to the 1990 Recommendation of the International Commission on Radiological Protection. This report is mainly addressed to physicians and physicist who engaged in activities regarding medical radiology. This also includes medical diagnostic, nuclear medicine, dentistry, and radiotherapy.
In ICRP publication 60, it is recommended by the Commission that the use of dose constraints for common diagnostic procedure application should be reviewed. It should be flexibly applied in order to allow higher doses. In publication 73, the Commission separates the diagnostic reference level concept from dose constraint concept and is discussed further.
A term diagnostic reference level is introduced by the ICRP Publication 73 in 1996. It is used to explain the reference levels based on ICRP concept and expanding ICRP Publication 60 recommendation in more
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Other than able to promote the achievement of an optimum range of values for specific medical imaging protocol, the diagnostic reference level could also promote the accomplishment of a narrower range of values that represent good practice for a specified medical imaging task. When the value observed in practice is consistently outside the selected upper or lower level, appropriate local review will be taken. This process helps to avoid unnecessary tissue doses being received by people, specifically the patients, and therefore helps in minimizing the risk for the associated radiation health