Alaska Administrative Code › Title 7 - Health and Social Services › Part 2 - Public Health › Chapter 18 - Radiation Sources and Radiation Protection › Article 4 - Use of Radiation Sources in the Healing Arts › 7 AAC 18.450 - Medical radiographic installation

Current through May 31, 2024
(a) A medical
				  radiographic installation must use a diagnostic type protective x-ray tube
				  housing and must meet the requirements of this section.
(b) Medical radiographic equipment must
				  define the useful beam with a diaphragm, cone, or adjustable collimator capable
				  of restricting the beam to the area of clinical interest, providing the same
				  degree of attenuation as is required of the protective tube housing. These
				  devices must be calibrated in terms of the size of the projected useful beam at
				  specified source-film distances and must limit the target-to-skin distance to
				  not less than 12 inches (30 centimeters).
(c) Radiographic equipment must be equipped
				  with adjustable collimators and light localizers to define the entire field and
				  produce a visible indication of adequate collimation and alignment on the x-ray
				  film. Field size indication on adjustable collimators must be accurately
				  aligned with the x-ray field to within two percent of the source-image
				  receptor-distance (SID) at all possible positions of the x-ray tube, except
				  when positive beam limitation is functional, in use, and a health physics
				  survey confirms that the positive beam limitation confines the beam to within
				  two percent of the SID.
(d) Except
				  when contraindicated for a particular medical purpose, the aluminum equivalent
				  of the total filtration in the useful beam may not be less than 0.5 millimeters
				  for equipment operating below 50 kVp; may not be less than 1.5 millimeters for
				  equipment operating from 50 kVp to 70 kVp; and may not be less than 2.5
				  millimeters for equipment operating above 70 kVp. If the filter in the machine
				  is not accessible for examination or the total filtration is unknown, the
				  requirements of this section are met if the half-value layer of the useful beam
				  is not less than that listed for "Other X-Ray Systems" in Table I of
				  21 C.F.R.
				  1020.30(m), as revised as of
				  April 1, 2008, and adopted by reference.
(e) A device must automatically terminate the
				  exposure after a preset time or exposure.
(f) The exposure switch must be of a dead-man
				  type switch and must be arranged in a manner that the switch cannot be operated
				  outside a shielded area, except that exposure switches for spot film devices
				  used in conjunction with fluoroscopic tables and for mobile diagnostic
				  radiographic equipment are exempt from this shielding requirement.
(g) The exposure switch for mobile equipment
				  must be arranged in a manner that the operator can stand at least six feet from
				  the patient and well away from the useful beam.
(h) The control panel must include
(1) a device that will give positive
				  indication of the production of x-rays whenever the x-ray tube is energized;
				  and
(2) appropriate devices that
				  will give positive indication of the physical factors used for the exposure,
				  such as kVp, mA, and exposure time.