INTRODUCTION

For more than a century X-ray radiation has been a valuable tool for imaging the human body. This imaging capability is used extensively to detect and diagnose disease and injury, manage patient care, and guide many forms of treatment. X ray procedure imparts energy with ionizing capability to the tissues of the body. Hence specific action must be taken to minimize any associated risk to the patient by eliminating any radiation exposure that is not required for the formation of the images necessary for each clinical objective. Diagnostic radiology contributes the maximum to population dose among the man-made radiation sources. It is essential that the dose to the patient is kept "As Low As Reasonably Achievable (ALARA)". The patient dose can be reduced by getting good quality images by the first take itself thereby avoiding retakes.

The first step in achieving the above objective is to have the machine periodically evaluated in the quality control program by a certified engineer to verify the output of the x-ray machine to get good quality images.