Biological dosimetry after yttrium-90 citrate colloid radiosynoviorthesis

Abstract

Radiosynoviorthesis (RSO) with the ss-particle-emitting nuclide yttrium-90 is an established concept for the treatment of persistent synovitis of the knee joint. The AIM of this study was to investigate the biological radiation effect on the basis of a characteristic radiation parameter. After RSO procedures with yttrium-90 citrate colloid and subsequent immobilisation of the knee, blood specimens of 10 patients were collected immediately before RSO and 11 to 13 days after the intervention. The yield of dicentric chromosomes in the lymphocytes was determined exclusively in metaphases of the first cell cycle in vitro. In addition, activity leakage was measured by wholebody bremsstrahlung-scintigraphy. No statistically significant increase in the number of dicentric chromosomes (26 before treatment and 34 after treatment) in 20 192 cells analyzed from the 20 blood samples could be found as a result of RSO. However, the analysis of at least 1000 cells per blood sample demonstrates a tendency for a biological radiation effect in the blood of patients on the basis of this characteristic radiation parameter. Two of the 10 RSO patients had undergone a second RSO using yttrium-90 citrate, whereby one patient displayed activity transport out of the knee joint, amounting to 6 MBq. Only for him a radiation effect (about 130 mGy per single RSO) could be calculated by biological dosimetry. Since in general, based on the analysis of dicentric chromosomes in at least 1000 lymphocytes per individual, detection limits for groups of persons after long-term exposures to low-LET radiation of 50-100 mGy are possible, we assume that RSO with yttrium-90 should be associated with a low whole-body radiation exposure.