P119] Dosimetric measurements of the personnel in children’s nuclear medicine unit

Abstract

Purpose Our study involves the dosimetric measurements of the personnel working at Children’s hospital nuclear medical unit. The daily work of the unit involves SPECT/CT as well as PET/CT examinations. The personnel of the unit consist of three medical doctors, six technologists, one nurse and two medical physicists. Lack of previous data regarding dosimetric measurements of the personnel involved in pediatric examinations illustrated the necessity for such data. Methods All staff was carrying chest as well as finger’s (TLD) dosimeters during daily practices. Dosimeters’ reading were analyzed by the National Committee of Atomic Energy and the values of personal depth dose equivalent H p (10) for chest dosimeters and H p (0.07) for finger dosimeters were reported in a monthly basis. The handling of children during the injection of the dose and the imaging process can be long time processes that can affect the involved personnel regarding dosimetry levels. Results In SPECT/CT examinations the administrated doses range between 0.1 – 20 mCi and in PET/CT 0.9–12 mCi. The exposure of personnel to radiation is increased due to the handling of examined children during: the administration of the dose, where children proved to be ‘difficult’ to handle patients and during the actual imaging process, where children react due to claustrophobia, pain, clinical condition, psychological status, etc. risking to jeopardize imaging data. During the procedure, each staff member is involved in different – specific stages: physicists and some technologists measuring and preparing doses, medical doctors as well as nurse to locate vein and administer the prescribed dose and finally, technologists, nurse and medical doctors handling children during the imaging stage. Therefore, personal depth dose equivalent H p was varied. Although, all measured annual doses are well within national limits, recorded relatively high doses of personnel involved in a specific step of the chain procedure would flag the need for consideration of further radioprotection measures. Conclusions Nuclear medicine examinations in children population require longer exposure time periods to radiation either during the dose injection or during the imaging process. Relatively high doses that correspond to specific procedures indicate that further radioprotection measures need to be considered and applied.