Introduction: Today, radiology employs radiation protection equipment that is placed between the exit beam and the patient’s body or between scattered radiation and the patient’s body. Aim: The aim was to establish any possible differences in radiation blocking ability between lead and non-lead protection equipment at various exposures within and at the edge of the primary field (scattered radiation). Methods: In the first part of the thesis, we used the descriptive method and conducted a survey of literature. The second part of the thesis was carried out with the experimental method. We measured radiation transmittance within and outside the primary field. The measurements were conducted on lead and non-lead protection equipment of 0.25 mm and 0.5 mm thickness. The imaging was performed using accelerating voltages from 40 to 150 kV, so that each exposure was increased by 5 kV at three different mAs values: 5, 25, and 50. Results: In the first cluster, we graphically presented measurements performed in the primary field without protection equipment and with protection equipment of 0.25 mm thickness. In nearly all cases, Simad non-lead protection equipment blocked a higher amount of X-ray radiation. In the second cluster, we graphically presented measurements performed outside the primary field using protection equipment of 0.5 mm thickness; the results were similar and leaning in favour of non-lead protection equipment. The third cluster presented the results of measurements performed in the primary field using protection equipment of 0.25 mm thickness. Lead protection yielded better results at 5 mAs and with the use of all selected accelerated voltages, whereas non-lead protection showed better performance in all other measurements. In the last cluster, we compared protection equipment of 0.5 mm thickness in the primary field. In this case, non-lead protection equipment provided a higher level of shielding at lower accelerating voltages and lead protection equipment proved more efficient at higher accelerating voltages. Discussion: Both types of protection equipment performed well in absorbing X-ray radiation. On reviewing the first two clusters, we found considerable differences in the use of various types of protection equipment of 0.25 mm thickness, with non-lead protection yielding better results. On the other hand, no significant differences were found regarding protection equipment of 0.5 mm thickness, making it difficult to show the advantages of one over the other. The differences between the two were minimum, but still in favour of the Simad protection equipment. Conclusion: We demonstrated the use of non-lead protection equipment to be sensible because it absorbs a larger amount of X-ray radiation than lead protection equipment while also being more user-friendly by weighing less.
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