Shahid Younas, Ahmed Yar, Ehsan Qadir, Khalid Nawaz.
Radiation dose management of 18FDG for occupational workers and comforters.
Pak J Nuclear Med Jan ;5(1):58-66.

Objective The study details our work in managing radiation doses to our workers and comforters when dealing with 18F-FDG under the ALARA principle. Methods Pakistan’s first PET-CT suite with on-site cyclotron was designed under the guidelines of AAPM Task Group Report #108 in 2009. Concrete, Perspex and lead were used as shielding materials to justify cost and space availability. The controlled areas were designed for permissible dose limit of ≤ 2 μSv/ hr. The staff members who have direct contact with 18F-FDG are given thermolumiscence dosimeters to record their monthly wholebody and extremities doses. Results Once operational, the maximum prevailing exposure is ≤ 10 μSv/ hr in FDG Synthesis unit at 5 Ci. The prevailing exposure in the PET-CT Console and injection room is ≤ 2 μSv/ hr, Prescanning room ≤ 5 μSv/ hr, post scanning room ≤ 0.2 μSv/ hr; cyclotron vault surrounding is ≤ 0.1 μSv/ hr. Nursing staff, injecting and dispensing 18F-FDG are rotated once in a week to inject ten patients per day/week using lead shielding to cover syringe, lead bricks and movable trolley. A short interaction between the patients are the technologists reduces the technologist’s dose to ≤0.6 mSv/ month (≤17 mSv/month). Three radio-chemists produce up to 5 Ci radioactive 18F-FDG on a daily basis in an automated shielded synthesis unit. The average radiation dose for each radiochemist is ≤0.7 mSv/month (≤27 mSv/month). Medical Physicists and cyclotron engineers receive ≤0.5 mSv/month (≤ 10 mSv/month). The comforters receive ≤1.5 mSv/scan recorded by the electronic pocket dosimeter (EPD). Each patient is released when the radiation exposure is reduced to ≤20 μSv/hr at 1 meter. Conclusion In the last five years (2009 to 2013), 10,000 patients were scanned with an average of 330 MBq injected dose. The maximum average dose received was 4 mSv/year for some members of nursing staff and radiochemists, whereas the least average dose of 1 mSv/year was received by technologists and the rest of the staff received doses ≤1 mSv/ year.

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