Assessing liver functions of radiologic technologists exposed chronically to radiation

Abstract

Background: The continued absorption of occupational radiation encounter by radiologic technologists and the potential resulting adverse effects have been a concern to the field for decades. This study investigates the risk factors of developing liver dysfunction among a selected group of radiologic technologists (RTs) to evaluates the correlation between cumulative radiation doses and liver injury. Methods: Only RTs who have been working in the radiology department for more than 10 years were selected for the study. The RTs and control groups were chosen based on several factors: adults, nonalcoholic, non-smoker, and have no history of hypertension or diabetes. A retrospective analysis was performed on the effective cumulative radiation dose for a selected RTs from 2009 to 2019. Fully automated biochemical analyzer was used to evaluate liver function tests. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), total bilirubin (BiL), direct BiL, indirect BiL, albumin (ALB), total protein (TP), cholesterol (CHOL), triglyceride (TG), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and glucose (GLUH) were measured. Results: The result showed that the difference in the medians of liver biomarker GGT between control and RTs groups was statistically significant. The median of GGT in RTs group was higher than that of the control group. Conclusions: GGT test is a hallmark of liver function and alteration in GGT level may indicate a hepatic defect. Thus, further investigation in a large cohort to study the association between GGT elevation and chronic radiation exposure is required.