Which dose metric is used for population risk estimates in DR?

• A. Entrance Skin Dose (ESD).
• B. Dose-Area Product (DAP).
• C. Effective dose (mSv).
• D. Organ Dose (OD).

Answer: (C)

Effective dose is the metric used for population risk estimates because it combines the amount of radiation absorbed by all irradiated tissues with their relative radiosensitivities to produce a single value that reflects overall stochastic risk to the whole person. This lets us compare different imaging procedures and assess cancer risk across populations in a consistent way. Other metrics focus on a single aspect: Entrance Skin Dose measures dose at the skin and relates to deterministic skin effects; Dose-Area Product tracks total energy deposited but does not directly represent risk across all tissues (and is often converted to effective dose with coefficients); Organ Dose targets a specific organ and doesn’t capture whole-body risk.