Assessment of the Possibility of Radiation Dermatitis in the Legs of Interventional Radiologists

Abstract

Background: Fluoroscopy guided imaging, which is going to be more routine these days, requires a long time of fluoroscopic observing that could increase the radiation dose of the physician and other staff who have to stay near the patient during the procedure. In our department, one of the senior interventionists observed hair loss in his lower limb. Objectives: The objective of this study was to measure the radiation dose of the physician’s leg during common procedures in order to find out that whether the radiation dose exceeds the threshold of deterministic effects of radiation. Patients and Methods: Thermoluminescent-dosimeters (TLD-100) set on the leg part of the anthropomorphic whole body phantom PBU-50 was used in order to measure the radiation dose in two centers where our interventionist worked. Meanwhile, the duration of exposure in important procedures was observed and recorded in center 1 for 2 months. During this period, data including age, height, and weight of the patients, and radiation exposure time, dose (mGy) and dose area product (dap) (µGy.cm2) were recorded. Results: The result of TLD dosimetry showed that the mean effective dose in center 1 and 2 was 0.20 and 0.86 mSv, and also the mean-dose (mSv)/min) in these centers was 0.02 ± 0.00 and 0.20 ± 0.015 mSv/min, respectively. Conclusion: The effective annual dose of interventionists who work in center 1 and 2 was 143.08 and 1226.78 mSv, respectively. The high radiation dose delivered to the leg of physicians in center 2 could be an important cause of radiation dermatitis occurred on the leg of our interventionist. Patient dose during most of the procedures was less than the threshold dose for occurring erythema. However, unfortunately in transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) procedure, which is a time-consuming procedure, the patient radiation dose exceeds the threshold. It would be useful if a plan was designed to reduce the dose of patients and even physicians.