Errors Associated with the Direct Measurement of Radionuclides in Wounds

Abstract

Work in radiation areas can occasionally result in accidental wounds containing radioactive materials. When a wound is incurred within a radiological area, the presence of radioactivity in the wound needs to be confirmed to determine if additional remedial action needs to be taken. Commonly used radiation area monitoring equipment is poorly suited for measurement of radioactive material buried within the tissue of the wound. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) In Vivo Measurement Facility has constructed a portable wound counter that provides sufficient detection of radioactivity in wounds as shown in Fig. 1. The LLNL wound measurement system is specifically designed to measure low energy photons that are emitted from uranium and transuranium radionuclides. The portable wound counting system uses a 2.5cm diameter by 1mm thick NaI(Tl) detector. The detector is connected to a Canberra NaI InSpector{trademark}. The InSpector interfaces with an IBM ThinkPad laptop computer, which operates under Genie 2000 software. The wound counting system is maintained and used at the LLNL In Vivo Measurement Facility. The hardware is designed to be portable and is occasionally deployed to respond to the LLNL Health Services facility or local hospitals for examination of personnel that may have radioactive materials within a wound. The typical detection levels in using the LLNL portable wound counter in a low background area is 0.4 nCi to 0.6 nCi assuming a near zero mass source. This paper documents the systematic errors associated with in vivo measurement of radioactive materials buried within wounds using the LLNL portable wound measurement system. These errors are divided into two basic categories, calibration errors and in vivo wound measurement errors. Within these categories, there are errors associated with particle self-absorption of photons, overlying tissue thickness, source distribution within the wound, and count errors. These errors have been examined and can cause significant issues when interpreting the measurement data.