Eye lens dosimetry in interventional cardiology: results of staff dose measurements and link to patient dose levels

Abstract

Workers involved in interventional cardiology procedures receive high eye lens dose if protection is not used. Currently, there is no suitable method for routine use for the measurement of eye dose. Since most angiography machines are equipped with suitable patient dosemeters, deriving factors linking staff eye doses to the patient doses can be helpful. In this study the patient kermaarea product, cumulative dose at an interventional reference point and eye dose in terms of H-p(3) of the cardiologists, nurses and radiographers for interventional cardiology procedures have been measured. Correlations between the patient dose and the staff eye dose were obtained. The mean eye dose was 121 Sv for the first operator, 33 Sv for the second operator/nurse and 12 Sv for radiographer. Normalised eye lens doses per unit kermaarea product were 0.94 Sv Gy(1) cm(2) for the first operator, 0.33 Sv Gy(1) cm(2) for the second operator/nurse and 0.16 Sv Gy(1) cm(2) for radiographers. Statistical analysis indicated that there is a weak but significant (p 0.01) correlation between the eye dose and the kermaarea product for all three staff categories. These values are based on a local practice and may provide useful reference for other studies for validation and for wider utilisation in assessing the eye dose using patient dose values.