P101] Are occupational doses of medical staff incurred in interventional procedures related to patient exposure

Abstract

Purpose We wished to evaluate the range of occupational exposures of medical personnel accrued within interventional cardiology procedures. The aim of this was also to determine if, and to what extent, actual exposure of the medical personnel, operators in particular, would exceed the recently proposed annual eye lens dose limits. We also sought to establish possible correlations between values of measured individual personnel exposures with patient PKA values and finally between different measured occupational dose quantities to determine whether the accrued eye-lens exposures could be correlated with finger or whole-body exposures. Methods Patient kerma-area product PKA, cumulative kerma in the air KIRP, fluoroscopic time t, personal dose equivalent (in terms of Hp(10), Hp(0.07) and Hp(3)) for most common interventional cardiology procedures were measured. PKA and KIRP measurements were used for patients and thermoluminescent dosimetry for the personnel. Dosemeters for personal doses measurements containing MCP-N (LiF: Mg, Cu, P) type thermoluminescence detectors (TLDs), were read out at the Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Science (IFJ PAN) dosimetry service. Results The mean values of total kerma-area product (PKA) were 22.7 (7.3–50.9) Gy · cm2 for coronary angiography (CA) and 43.1 (3.2–86.4) Gy · cm2 for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). In general, doses received by the staff performing PCI procedures were found to be systematically higher than those after CA procedures, by some 30% or more. Within the medical team, operators always received the highest doses, followed by nurses and technicians. Maximum eye lens doses, skin doses and whole body doses were 165 μ Sv, 962 μ Sv and 30 μ Sv per procedure, respectively. Annual eye lens doses received by the operators, especially in PCI procedures, may well exceed the value of the recently recommended annual dose limit of 20 mSv and should be monitored. No meaningful correlation could be established between occupational doses and patient exposure, however some degree of correlation was observed between values of dose to the eye lens and whole body dose. Conclusions The findings of this study clearly indicate the necessity of radiation protection measures in interventional cardiology. Our results show that personal doses per procedure vary markedly.