| Abstract [eng] |
The work of nuclear medicine personnel includes preparation and injection of radiopharmaceuticals, during which hands come into close contact with the radionuclide leading to higher exposure doses to extremities. Nowadays, monitoring of hand doses of nuclear medicine personnel is performed by wearing ring dosimeter on the base of a finger of the dominant hand. However, the distribution over hand is nonuniform and the doses obtained by the ring dosimeter can be significantly lower compared to other parts, especially fingertips. The aim of this project was to evaluate hand doses in different points for radiology technologists of the Nuclear Medicine Department of Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Klinikos working with 18F- and 99mTc- labelled radiopharmaceuticals. In order to measure the doses, TLD-100 chips were used. Dosimeters were calibrated with 18F and 99mTc sources in a range of (0.25-2) mSv and (0.5-4) mSv, respectively, and were read by RIALTO TLD reader. There were performed 7 measurements for personnel working in a hot lab with 99mTc, 3 measurements for injection of 99mTc- labelled radiopharmaceuticals, and 1 measurement for radiology technologist working with 18F radionuclide. Overall, 15 TLD-100 positions for both hands were chosen and measured. It was found that the right (dominant) hand received higher doses than the left (non-dominant) hand by 2.17 and 1.15 times while preparing 99mTc- and 18F- labelled radiopharmaceuticals, respectively. The most exposed part working in a hot lab with 99mTc was the tip of the right thumb resulting in an average dose of 0.728 mSv/GBq, meanwhile during the work with 18F, the highest dose was achieved by the tip of the right hand index finger (0.021 mSv/GBq). During the radiopharmaceutical injection (99mTc), the highest average dose was observed in the case of the left hand index finger tip (0.094 mSv/GBq) leading to 1.09 times higher average dose of the left hand compared with the right hand. During all measurements, the least exposed parts were the palm and the wrist. Also, it was determined that the maximum fingertip dose was 2.1-2.4 times higher compared with the doses from usual monitoring position. Based on the results, it is recommended to wear ring dosimeter on the base of the thumb of the dominant hand. |
