This International Standard applies to test procedures which, for the determination of characteristics of systems or components of medical diagnostic X-RAY EQUIPMENT, require well-defined RADIATION CONDITIONS. Except for mammography, this standard does not apply to conditions where discontinuities in radiation absorption of elements are deliberately used to modify properties of the RADIATION BEAM (for example by rare earth filters). RADIATION CONDITIONS as used for screen-film sensitometry are not covered in this standard. NOTE Screen-film sensitometry is the subject of the ISO 9236 series. This standard deals with methods for generating RADIATION BEAMS with RADIATION CONDITIONS which can be used under test conditions typically found in test laboratories or in manufacturing facilities for the determination of characteristics of medical diagnostic X-RAY EQUIPMENT. Examples of such RADIATION QUALITIES are RADIATION BEAMS emerging through the filtration from the X-RAY SOURCE ASSEMBLY. RADIATION CONDITIONS represent the more general case, where SCATTERED RADIATION emerges from an EXIT SURFACE of a PATIENT or a PHANTOM. This requires a well defined geometrical arrangement. The most complete specification of RADIATION FIELDS is given by the spectral distribution of the photon fluence. Since the measurement of X-RAY SPECTRA is a demanding task, this standard expresses RADIATION QUALITIES in terms of the X-RAY TUBE VOLTAGE, the first and second HALFVALUE LAYER. In the case of RADIATION CONDITIONS, specifications are performed additionally in terms of PHANTOM properties and geometry. The attempt to characterize a spectral distribution just by means of the X-RAY TUBE VOLTAGE, the first and possibly the second HALF-VALUE LAYER is thus a compromise between the mutually conflicting requirements of avoiding excessive efforts for establishing a RADIATION QUALITY and of the complete absence of any ambiguity in the definition of a RADIATION QUALITY. Due to differences in the design and the age of X-RAY TUBES in terms of anode angle, anode roughening and INHERENT FILTRATION, two RADIATION QUALITIES produced at a given XRAY TUBE VOLTAGE having the same first HALF-VALUE LAYER can still have quite different spectral distributions. Given the inherent ambiguity in the characterization of RADIATION QUALITY, it is essential that further tolerances introduced by allowing certain ranges of values, e.g. for X-RAY TUBE VOLTAGE and first HALF-VALUE LAYER, must be sufficiently small not to jeopardise the underlying objective of this standard. This standard is to ensure that measurements of the properties of medical diagnostic equipment should produce consistent results if RADIATION QUALITIES or RADIATION CONDITIONS in compliance with this standard are used.