Radiation dose assessment for nuclear medicine workers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Nuclear medicine (NM) is an essential radiology department in healthcare facilities. In NM procedures, radioactive isotopes are administered intravenously or orally to assess the molecular, metabolic, physiologic, anatomical and pathologic states of the body for diagnostic therapy and research applications. The annual dosimetric records of 269 nuclear medicine technologists (NMTs) and 132 nuclear medicine nurses (NMNs) from 2016 to 2021 are collected in four major medical centres. Personal radiation doses in NM departments are monitored on a quarterly basis using thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs). The TLDs used have an approximate tissue equivalence of 8.14 and a density of around 2.64 g cm−3. TLDs are read using WinREMS software and a Harshaw 6600 plus reader. In this study, only Hp (10), which estimates the effective dose, is included in the analysis. The result showed that the NMTs and NMNs’ overall mean effective dose during the study period were 1.06 ± 0.60 mSv (0.06–3.26 mSv) and 0.92 ± 0.70 mSv (0.01–5.52 mSv), respectively. The result of our study found lower values of annual mean effective doses compared to previous studies conducted in Saudi Arabia. The dosimetric records show that the mean effective dose among both workers were below the permissible dose limits, which suggest a safe work environment in term of radiation protection practices.