Health Physics, Department of Clinical Physics and Bio-Engineering,
Western Infirmary, Glasgow G11 6NY, UK. Mark.Whitby@NorthGlasgow.Scot.NHS.UK
Staff preparing and injecting radiopharmaceuticals
in hospitals may receive significant radiation doses to their hands.
These doses may be high enough to warrant that they be classified
as radiation workers. The influence of local shielding on finger
doses has been investigated. Staff preparing radioactive liquids
in a radionuclide dispensary and drawing up and injecting radiopharmaceuticals
in a nuclear medicine department have been studied. Measurements
have been recorded with an electronic extremity dose monitor, an
advanced extremity gamma instrumentation system (AEGIS), worn near
to the finger tip. The electronic dosimeter allows the pattern
of doses received during different procedures to be determined.
Doses received for individual manipulations during many routine
sessions have been recorded for different staff members. Dose distributions
around shielded vials and syringes have also been measured using
AEGIS. In the radionuclide dispensary the vials from which radioactive
liquids are dispensed are held in tungsten shields, whereas in
nuclear medicine simple lead pots are used. Syringe shields are
employed for some parts of dispensing and patient injections. Data
on dose distributions have been used in interpretation of results
from monitoring. Use of syringe shields during dispensing reduced
the finger dose by 75-85%. The peaks in dose rate were 60% lower,
and periods of exposure to high dose rates were reduced in length
by a third because of the restriction in the region of high dose
rate. The extremity doses to staff dispensing and injecting radiopharmaceuticals
in nuclear medicine were of similar magnitude. Doses received during
dispensing varied from 10 to 555 microGy depending upon whether
the vial containing the radiopharmaceutical was directly handled
or not. Doses received from individual injections varied from 1
to 150 microGy depending on the degree of difficulty experienced
during the injection .
PMID: 12729420 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
See the full article here |
