Objective: To estimate entrance skin dose (ESD) of digital radiography (DR) examination using displayed dose area product (DAP)

Material and Method: The functional relation between calculated ESD using x-ray tube output principle and displayed DAP were investigated. The displayed DAP was obtained from whole body phantom which underwent seven projections: skull anteroposterior (AP), skull lateral (Lat), chest posteroanterior (PA), abdomen AP, pelvis AP, lumbar spine AP and l umbar spine Lat. The estimating results were analyzed and compared with two other methods using one-way analysis of variance.
Results: The high relation between the ESD calculated and the displayed DAP were founded with simple equation: ESD=0.0017.DAP+0.1546 (R2=0.88) The mean ESD estimated performed by DR examination with automatic exposure control (AEC) mode using our method, Mcparland method and Kisilewicz method were 1.07, 1.13 and 0.89 whereas without AEC mode were 3.25, 3.45 and 2.60 respectively. There was provided no statistically significant difference between our approach and two other methods (p-value>0.010).
Conclusion: The displayed DAP can be used to estimate the ESD.