Radiation Exposure to Nuclear Medicine Staff Involved in Pet/Ct Practice in Serbia

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to evaluate the radiation exposure to nuclear medicine (NM) staff in the two positron emission tomography-computed tomography centres in Serbia and to investigate the possibilities for dose reduction. Dose levels in terms of H-p(10) for whole body and H-p(0.07) for hands of NM staff were assessed using thermoluminescence and electronic personal dosemeters. The assessed doses per procedure in terms of H-p(10) were 4.2-7 and 5-6 mu Sv, in two centres, respectively, whereas the extremity doses in terms of H-p(0.07) in one of the centres was 34-126 mu Sv procedure(-1). The whole-body doses per unit activity were 17-19 and 21-26 mu Sv GBq(-1) in two centres, respectively, and the normalised finger dose in one centre was 170-680 mu Sv GBq(-1). The maximal estimated annual whole-body doses in two centres were 3.4 and 2.0 mSv, while the corresponding extremity dose in the later one was 45 mSv. Improvements as introduction of automatic dispensing system and injection and optimisation of working practice resulted in dose reduction ranging from 12 up to 67%.