An overview on extremity dosimetry in medical applications
Résumé
Some activities of EURADOS Working Group 9 (WG9) are presently funded by the European Commission (CONRAD project). The objective of WG9 is to promote and co-ordinate research activities for the assessment of occupational exposures to staff at workplaces in interventional radiology (IR) and nuclear medicine. For some of these applications, the skin of the fingers is the limiting organ for individual monitoring of external radiation. Therefore, sub-group 1 of WG9 deals with the use of extremity dosemeters in medical radiation fields. The wide variety of radiation field characteristics present in a medical environment together with the difficulties in measuring a local dose that is representative for the maximum skin dose, usually with one single detector, makes it difficult to perform accurate extremity dosimetry. Sub-group 1 worked out a thorough literature review on extremity dosimetry issues in diagnostic and therapeutic nuclear medicine and positron emission tomography, interventional radiology and interventional cardiology and brachytherapy. Some studies showed that the annual dose limits could be exceeded if the required protection measures are not taken, especially in nuclear medicine. The continuous progress in new applications and techniques requires an important effort in radiation protection and training. © The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
Mots clés
iodine 123
technetium 99m
thallium 201
accuracy
brachytherapy
continuing education
dosimeter
dosimetry
Europe
human
interventional radiology
limb
literature
medical research
nuclear medicine
occupational exposure
photon emission tomography
radiation
radiation detector
radiation dose
radiation field
radiation monitoring
radiation protection
radiation response
review
skin
body burden
medical staff
methodology
radiation exposure
Body Burden
Extremities
Humans
Medical Staff
Nuclear Medicine
Occupational Exposure
Radiation Dosage
Radiation Monitoring
Radiation Protection
Radiotherapy Dosage