Why are the terms Effective Dose and Effective Dose Equivalent used?
Communication of risk to research subjects is an essential part of the consent form. It is important that the risk be communicated in easily understood language. Most risk factors are derived from data involving uniform exposure of the whole body. However, most exposures to research subjects are limited to a part of the body or, in the case of radiopharmaceuticals, result in non-homogeneous exposure of the whole body. As a result, the International Commission of Radiological Protection (ICRP) recommended the use of the term Effective Dose Equivalent (EDE) in 1977 (ICRP report #26). The EDE is the weighted sum of doses to individual organs where the weighting factors are based upon estimates of relative risk of stochastic (probable) effects from irradiation of the different tissues. It approximates inhomogeneous irradiation of the human body to a comparable whole-body radiation dose to permit the comparison of the relative risks from various radiation exposures. However, the tissue weig
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