Assessment and Evaluation of Radiology Darkroom in Benue State University Teaching Hospital and Federal Medical Centre Makurdi, Nigeria

In every exposure, the primary goal of radiology is to obtain a high quality image with low radiation dose to patient. The research seeks to evaluate all the other factors that constitute high quality image with low radiation level in order that the ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achievable) principle is maintained. In this work, the effect of safelight, white light, chemicals used for processing of radiology films and the time taken to process X-ray film in radiological units of some Hospitals in Benue State are determined and evaluated. The quality of the image in the darkroom is found to depend on how short the film is exposed to safelight. The processing chemicals and the temperature at which these films are processed and stored are also evaluated. The result obtained, show that the contrast level decreases as the exposure time increases as shown in the blue nature of the films exposed at longer time. Furthermore, the temperature of the processing solutions is seen to be very high when compared with ICRP and NCRP standards which indicates that the processing tanks at the two hospitals are not within the recommended standards and the standard humidity of (40-60%) are also not met.