Radiation Dose to Technologists per Nuclear Medicine Examination and Estimation of Annual Dose

Article Figures & Data

Download figure
Open in new tab
Download powerpoint
FIGURE 1.
Doses to technologists per nuclear medicine procedure, in comparison with study of Chiesa et al. (2).

TABLE 1

External Dose Rates per Procedure Measured at Various Distances from Patient

	Distance from patient
Type of examination	0.25 m	0.5 m	1 m	2 m
Whole-body bone scan (^99mTc-MDP)	1.31 ± 0.71	0.56 ± 0.20	0.33 ± 0.12	0.13 ± 0.03
Thyroid scan (^99mTc-pertechnetate)	1.70 ± 0.73	0.86 ± 0.23	0.43 ± 0.09	0.20 ± 0.02
Renal scan (^99mTc-DMSA)	1.06 ± 1.13	0.48 ± 0.36	0.24 ± 0.16	0.08 ± 0.02
Myocardial perfusion scan
^99mTc-MIBI, stress	1.65 ± 1.04	0.69 ± 0.26	0.27 ± 0.13	0.09 ± 0.03
^99mTc-MIBI, rest	2.29 ± 1.35	1.42 ± 0.59	0.43 ± 0.18	0.19 ± 0.06
²⁰¹Tl-chloride, stress	0.32 ± 0.16	0.13 ± 0.03	0.07 ± 0.05	0.03 ± 0.01
²⁰¹Tl-chloride, redistribution	0.34 ± 0.16	0.18 ± 0.06	0.13 ± 0.08	0.05 ± 0.01

TABLE 2

Dose to Technologists per Nuclear Medicine Examination in Different Diagnostic Applications

Type of examination	n	Patient positioning dose	Total dose using lead shield	Total dose without lead shield
Whole-body bone scan (^99mTc-MDP)	20	0.10 ± 0.05	0.24 ± 0.08	0.57 ± 0.15
Thyroid scan (^99mTc-pertechnetate)	12	0.08 ± 0.03	0.15 ± 0.02	0.26 ± 0.06
Renal scan (^99mTc-DMSA)	15	0.03 ± 0.03	0.13 ± 0.05	0.21 ± 0.07
Myocardial perfusion scan
^99mTc-MIBI	28^*	0.13 ± 0.08	0.43 ± 0.17	1.01 ± 0.46
²⁰¹Tl-chloride	20^†	0.02 ± 0.01	0.16 ± 0.04	0.23 ± 0.08

TABLE 3

Estimated Annual Total Doses to Technologists Responsible for a Particular Diagnostic Procedure

Type of examination	Mean annual dose using lead shield	Mean annual dose without lead shield
Whole-body bone scan (^99mTc-MDP)	1.50	3.56
Thyroid scan (^99mTc-pertechnetate)	0.94	1.63
Renal scan (^99mTc-DMSA)	0.33	0.53
Myocardial perfusion scan
^99mTc-MIBI	0.86	2.02
²⁰¹Tl-chloride	0.20	0.29

TABLE 4

Annual Doses to Technologists as Measured with Thermoluminescence Dosimeters

Type of examination	Annual dose to technologist 1	Annual dose to technologist 2	Annual mean dose
Whole-body bone scan (^99mTc-MDP)	4.05	3.65	3.85
Thyroid scan (^99mTc-pertechnetate)	1.72	1.40	1.56
Renal scan (^99mTc-DMSA)	1.35	1.52	1.44
Myocardial perfusion scan (^99mTc-MIBI + ²⁰¹Tl-chloride)	3.99	4.25	4.12