Radiographic Protection Key Terms Chapter 1
Terms
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- ALARA
- as low as reasonably achievable
- BERT
- background equivalent radiation time
- biologic damage
- damage in living tissue
- biologic effects
- damage to living tissue of animals and humans exposed to radiation
- cellular damage
- injury on the cellular level resulting from sufficient exposure to ionizing radiaiton at the molecular level.
- diagnostic efficiacy
- the degree to which the diagnostic study accurately reveals the presence or absence of disease in the patient
- effective dose (E)
- a quantity that is used for radiation protection purposes to provide a measure of the overall risk of exposure to ionizing radiation. Effective dose takes into account the dose for all types of ionizing radiation to organs or tissues in the human body being irradiated and the overall harm, or weighting factor, of those biologic components for developing a radiation-induced cancer (or for the reproductive organs, the risk of genetic damage).
- electromagnetic spectrum
- the complete range of frequencies and energies of electromagnetic radiation
- electromagnetic wave
- electric and magnetic fields that fluctuate rapidly as they travel through space, including radio waves, microwaves, visible light, and x-rays.
- equivalent dose (HT)
- A quantity that attempts to take into account the variation in biologic harm that is produced by different types of radiation by considering the type and energy of the radiation. Equivalent dose enables the calculation of the effective (E) dose.
- genetic damage
- radiation damage to generations yet unborn
- ionization
- the conversion of atoms to ions
- ionizing radiation
- radiation that produces positively & negatively charged particles (ions) when passing through matter
- manmade, or artificial, radiation
- ionizing radiaiton created by humans for various uses, including nuclear fuel for generation of power, consumer products containing radioactive material, and medical radiation
- natural background radiation
- ionizing radiaiton from environmental sources, including radioactive materials int he earth, cosmic radiation from space, and radionuclides deposited in the human body