The invisible room · a Rothband experience
A cath lab in the dark. Your finger is the detector. Sweep the room and it reveals itself in scatter: the colour tells you how much, the clicks tell you how fast. Find the five places it hides, then switch the Rothband kit on and listen to the room go quiet.
The invisible room
Press and drag anywhere in the dark. Where you touch, the room lights up in the colour of the scatter at that point and the detector clicks faster the hotter it gets. Five hotspots are hidden in the room. Find them all, then switch on the kit.
Turns the sound on. Then press and drag anywhere in the room.
Peak scatter you recorded at each hotspot. Grey is the room with no protection; cyan is the room with Rothband kit on. Units are relative, not mSv. Sweep every hotspot in both modes to complete the comparison.
The clicks are a Geiger counter metaphor. Real scatter is silent, and this is an indicative model built from published relationships (inverse square distance, tube-side scatter, cine versus fluoroscopy, typical attenuation of garments and shields). It is not a dosimetry measurement and not a substitute for a risk assessment with your Radiation Protection Adviser.
What you found
The hotspots in the room above are not random. Each one is a position where published guidance says staff dose concentrates, and each one has a Rothband answer.
Closest to where the beam enters the patient, on the tube side, for the whole case. Scatter falls with the square of distance, so the person at the access site takes the most by a wide margin.2 Answer: a wraparound two-piece apron giving 0.5 mm Pb at the front.
With an under-table tube, the beam enters from below and scatter escapes under the table towards the legs of anyone at the table side, where the apron stops. Table-mounted lower body shields have been shown to significantly reduce lower extremity dose.2
At the head end, further from the beam but often the least shielded person in the room, and usually facing the patient. A mobile barrier with a window at the right height is the fix.1
Roughly 0.5 to 5% of scatter gets through a 0.5 mm apron front, but eyes and thyroid sit above the apron. Lead glasses roughly halved eye lens dose in clinical use; the UK annual eye lens limit is 20 mSv.3,4
The quiet spot. Lead-lined walls and lead glass stop almost everything, which is why the radiographer's reading is near zero in both modes. Structural shielding is the protection nobody has to remember to put on.
What made the room quiet
Made in Lancashire since 1911, NHS Supply Chain approved, core materials tested to IEC 61331.
Torso · everyone at the table
Lightweight two-piece wraparound. Overlapping front panels give 0.5 mm Pb where scatter hits first; the weight is shared between shoulders and hips for long lists. Lightweight lead, Bilayer Earth or Bilayer Lead Free cores.
TXRW Wrap Top →
Thyroid
0.35 mm Pb lightweight lead collar covering the gland that sits exposed at the neckline of most aprons. Velcro or magnetic closure.
Thyroid collars →
Eyes · 20 mSv annual lens limit
Lead-equivalent lenses with side protection for the people closest to the patient. FitOver frames go over prescription glasses; Nike and Oakley frames for staff who want to actually wear them.
X-ray glasses →
Legs · under the table
Overlapping lead panels that hang from the table rail and fold down for access. Six lengths from 78 to 162 cm, plus a multi-use shield and under-couch frame.
Table-mounted shields →
Anaesthetist · head end
Wheeled lead barrier with a window adjustable from 115 to 188 cm, so the person behind it can see the patient and the monitors without standing in the scatter.
Mobile barrier →Control room · the quiet spot
Lead-lined doors, partitions and viewing windows for the control area and the rooms next door. Rothband designs, supplies and installs.
Structural shielding →Make your room quieter
Tell us about your room and your team. A Rothband specialist will come back to you with garment, eyewear and shielding options for the positions people really stand in.
Behind the room
The room is a teaching model. These are the relationships it uses, and where they come from.
Distance. Scatter falls with the square of the distance from the patient. Step from half a metre to one metre and the rate drops to a quarter. The model places the beam entry point on the patient and scales everything from there.2
Because acquisition runs put roughly ten times the dose rate of fluoroscopy into the patient, so the scatter reaching the team jumps the same way. In the real lab the fix is to step back during runs.1
Every table-side person in a wraparound apron, collar and glasses, a lower body table shield on the table, a mobile barrier at the head end. Aprons are modelled at around 5% transmission at the front, collars at 8%, glasses at a factor of two, the barrier at 10%, and the table shield at 20% for the legs. The table shield figure is a judgement; the literature says "significant" rather than giving one number.3,4,2
No. It is a teaching model. Real doses are measured with personal dosimeters and depend on the room, the equipment and the procedure. Use it to understand where protection matters, then measure.
This experience was built by Rothband (WSR Medical Solutions Ltd), a UK radiation protection manufacturer since 1911. It is general guidance and not a substitute for your local rules, risk assessment or the advice of your Radiation Protection Adviser.
The invisible room · a Rothband experience
A cath lab in the dark. Your finger is the detector. Sweep the room and it reveals itself in scatter: the colour tells you how much, the clicks tell you how fast. Find the five places it hides, then switch the Rothband kit on and listen to the room go quiet.
The invisible room
Press and drag anywhere in the dark. Where you touch, the room lights up in the colour of the scatter at that point and the detector clicks faster the hotter it gets. Five hotspots are hidden in the room. Find them all, then switch on the kit.
Turns the sound on. Then press and drag anywhere in the room.
Peak scatter you recorded at each hotspot. Grey is the room with no protection; cyan is the room with Rothband kit on. Units are relative, not mSv. Sweep every hotspot in both modes to complete the comparison.
The clicks are a Geiger counter metaphor. Real scatter is silent, and this is an indicative model built from published relationships (inverse square distance, tube-side scatter, cine versus fluoroscopy, typical attenuation of garments and shields). It is not a dosimetry measurement and not a substitute for a risk assessment with your Radiation Protection Adviser.
What you found
The hotspots in the room above are not random. Each one is a position where published guidance says staff dose concentrates, and each one has a Rothband answer.
Closest to where the beam enters the patient, on the tube side, for the whole case. Scatter falls with the square of distance, so the person at the access site takes the most by a wide margin.2 Answer: a wraparound two-piece apron giving 0.5 mm Pb at the front.
With an under-table tube, the beam enters from below and scatter escapes under the table towards the legs of anyone at the table side, where the apron stops. Table-mounted lower body shields have been shown to significantly reduce lower extremity dose.2
At the head end, further from the beam but often the least shielded person in the room, and usually facing the patient. A mobile barrier with a window at the right height is the fix.1
Roughly 0.5 to 5% of scatter gets through a 0.5 mm apron front, but eyes and thyroid sit above the apron. Lead glasses roughly halved eye lens dose in clinical use; the UK annual eye lens limit is 20 mSv.3,4
The quiet spot. Lead-lined walls and lead glass stop almost everything, which is why the radiographer's reading is near zero in both modes. Structural shielding is the protection nobody has to remember to put on.
What made the room quiet
Made in Lancashire since 1911, NHS Supply Chain approved, core materials tested to IEC 61331.
Torso · everyone at the table
Lightweight two-piece wraparound. Overlapping front panels give 0.5 mm Pb where scatter hits first; the weight is shared between shoulders and hips for long lists. Lightweight lead, Bilayer Earth or Bilayer Lead Free cores.
TXRW Wrap Top →Thyroid
0.35 mm Pb lightweight lead collar covering the gland that sits exposed at the neckline of most aprons. Velcro or magnetic closure.
Thyroid collars →Eyes · 20 mSv annual lens limit
Lead-equivalent lenses with side protection for the people closest to the patient. FitOver frames go over prescription glasses; Nike and Oakley frames for staff who want to actually wear them.
X-ray glasses →Legs · under the table
Overlapping lead panels that hang from the table rail and fold down for access. Six lengths from 78 to 162 cm, plus a multi-use shield and under-couch frame.
Table-mounted shields →Anaesthetist · head end
Wheeled lead barrier with a window adjustable from 115 to 188 cm, so the person behind it can see the patient and the monitors without standing in the scatter.
Mobile barrier →Control room · the quiet spot
Lead-lined doors, partitions and viewing windows for the control area and the rooms next door. Rothband designs, supplies and installs.
Structural shielding →Make your room quieter
Tell us about your room and your team. A Rothband specialist will come back to you with garment, eyewear and shielding options for the positions people really stand in.
Behind the room
The room is a teaching model. These are the relationships it uses, and where they come from.
Distance. Scatter falls with the square of the distance from the patient. Step from half a metre to one metre and the rate drops to a quarter. The model places the beam entry point on the patient and scales everything from there.2
Because acquisition runs put roughly ten times the dose rate of fluoroscopy into the patient, so the scatter reaching the team jumps the same way. In the real lab the fix is to step back during runs.1
Every table-side person in a wraparound apron, collar and glasses, a lower body table shield on the table, a mobile barrier at the head end. Aprons are modelled at around 5% transmission at the front, collars at 8%, glasses at a factor of two, the barrier at 10%, and the table shield at 20% for the legs. The table shield figure is a judgement; the literature says "significant" rather than giving one number.3,4,2
No. It is a teaching model. Real doses are measured with personal dosimeters and depend on the room, the equipment and the procedure. Use it to understand where protection matters, then measure.
This experience was built by Rothband (WSR Medical Solutions Ltd), a UK radiation protection manufacturer since 1911. It is general guidance and not a substitute for your local rules, risk assessment or the advice of your Radiation Protection Adviser.
