Review of extremity dosimetry in nuclear medicine
The exposure of the fingers is one of the major radiation protection concerns in nuclear medicine
(NM). The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the exposure, dosimetry and protection
of the extremities in NM. A wide range of reported finger doses were found in the literature.
Historically, the highest finger doses are found at the fingertip in the preparation and dispensing
of 18 F for diagnostic procedures and 90 Y for therapeutic procedures. Doses can be significantly
reduced by following recommendations on source shielding, increasing distance and training.
Additionally, important trends contributing to a lower dose to the fingers are the use of automated
procedures (especially for positron emission tomography (PET)) and the use of prefilled syringes. On
the other hand, the workload of PET procedures has substantially increased during the last ten
years. In many cases, the accuracy of dose assessment is limited by the location of the dosimet...
Source: Journal of Radiological Protection - Category: Physics Authors: Robert Kollaard, Alessandra Zorz, J érémie Dabin, Peter Covens, Jennie Cooke, Melissa Crabbé, Lidia Cunha, Anita Dowling, Mercè Ginjaume and Leanne McNamara Source Type: research