Assessment of extremity occupational exposure at a nuclear medicine department

Abstract

There has been an increase in the use of radioactive materials in diagnostic imaging, putting nuclear medicine personnel at increased medical risks. Worldwide, there is limited data regarding extremity dose exposure with multiple studies showing wide dose variability. Therefore, in this study, extremity occupational doses for 9 nuclear medicine personnel, consisting of nurses, technologists, and nuclear medicine physicians, at a large hospital in Riyadh were monitored over a one-year period. Ring dosimeters and calibrated ThermoLuminescent Dosimeters (TLDs), specifically, a lithium fluoride-based TLD-100, were used to measure dose equivalent values. In mSv, the mean annual dose and range for three groups for extremities’ dose exposure were as follows: group one (6.24 ± 4.28) (1.1–11.7), group two (55.45 ± 7.85) (49.9–61) and group three (221.45 ± 18.03) (208.7–234.2). Within each of the three groups, the annual radiation dose was similar; however, there was large intergroup variation as would be expected due to the different roles each personnel has. However, in all cases, the extremity dose was less than the annual dose limit (500 mSv) set. Hence, this reveals a wide variation in dose among the personnel. This revealed a wide variation in dose among the personnel, highlighting the need for careful assessment of working conditions to ensure annual occupational exposures below the recommended limits.