Project workplan

Start: 1st of December 2014
End: 31st of May 2017

  1. TASK 1: Recruitment of the interventional cardiologists and unexposed persons in the different participating countries
    (task coordinator: STUK - Finland)

    • Record information on medical background and occupational history (2 questionnaires)
    • Performance of eye examinations (slit lamp + Scheimpflug images) by national ophthalmologists
  2. TASK 2: Performance of eye lens dose measurements in routine practice to validate the dosimetric approaches for retrospective eye lens dose assessment
    (task coordinator: GAEC - Greece)
    • Dosimetric follow up with the EYE-D dosemeter [Radcard, Poland] for a large sample of interventional cardiologists in different European countries
    • Uncertainty analysis on the retrospective assessment of eye lens doses
  3. TASK 3: Calculation of the cumulated eye lens dose for each recruited interventional cardiologist
    (task coordinator: SCK•CEN - Belgium)
    • The development of a data management tool
    • The use of the data management application tool by each recruiting partner for the individual calculation of eye lens dose and its associated uncertainty
  4. TASK 4: Analysis of performed eye examinations for each recruited exposed and unexposed person by 2 study ophthalmologists
    (task coordinator: UKB - Germany)
    • The classification of the slit lamp images from all countries by the 2 study ophthalmologists according to the LOCS III classification
    • Evaluating the inter-rater variability of the lens classifications
    • The quantitative evaluation of the Scheimpflug images by the 2 study ophthalmologists
    • Comparison of the quantitative results with the Scheimpflug camera and the qualitative LOCS III classification on a subgroup of the cohort
  5. TASK 5: Pooling of the national cohorts and statistical analysis on the pooled European cohort of interventional cardiologists and unexposed persons
    (task coordinator: IRSN - France)
    • Pooling of the different national cohorts
    • Statistical analysis on the European cohort and evaluation of a dose-response relationship and its uncertainty
  6. TASK 6: Training on good practices and radiation protection
    (task coordinator: VUB - Belgium)
    • The development of an educational tool to evaluate working practices and methods for minimising doses
    • Dissemination of the results in an international cardiology conference and through national societies