Article Sidebar
Published:
Oct 2, 2023Keywords:
Article Details
The author(s) retain copyright on work published by AOSIS unless specified otherwise.
Licensing and publication rights
Author(s) of work published by AOSIS are required to grant AOSIS the unlimited rights to publish the definitive work in any format, language and medium, for any lawful purpose. AOSIS requires journal authors to publish their work in open access under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.
The authors retain the non-exclusive right to do anything they wish with the published article(s), provided attribution is given to the applicable journal with details of the original publication, as set out in the official citation of the article published in the journal. The retained right specifically includes the right to post the article on the authors’ or their institution’s websites or in institutional repositories.
Previously published work may have been published under a different licence. We advise the community that if they would like to reuse the work to consult the applicable licence at article level.
Note: If you need to comply with your funding body policy, you can apply for the CC BY license after your manuscript is accepted for publication.
Main Article Content
Radiation exposure of Staff handling 18FluorineFluorodeoxyglucose in a new positron emission tomography/computed tomography centre
Abstract
Background: Positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) is an imaging modality that combines images from high- energy gamma rays emitted by a positron emitting radiopharmaceutical and those from the CT component. The images are then used in the diagnosis of severe diseases. Procedures with PET radiopharmaceuticals introduce a risk of high occupational radiation exposure to staff handling them. 18Fluorine-Fluorodeoxyglucose ([18F] FDG) is the most commonly used PET radiopharmaceutical.
Aim: To determine the radiation exposure of staff working at the PET/CT facility.
Setting: Academic hospital in Gauteng.
Methods: The study was quantitative and descriptive. The radiation exposure data of participants were collected using Polimaster®electronic pocket dosimeters, ring dosimeters and thermoluminescent dosimeters. The participants’ workflow was tracked and the tasks that led to the highest radiation exposure were identified.
Results: Radiopharmacists had 129 dispensing days with the resultant daily radiation exposure ranging between 0.01 μSv and 0.32 μSv. The radiographers’ daily radiation exposure ranged between 7.08 μSv and 19.14 μSv. Radiographers received the highest radiation dose during radiopharmaceutical injection (average = 1.86 µSv).
Conclusion: The study found that staff working at a new PET/CT facility in Gauteng were not at risk of radiation exposure above the accepted annual limits, which are 20 mSv per annum, averaged over 5 years, and with no more than 50 mSv in 1 year.
Contribution: The findings revealed the need for continuous training in radiation protection measures for all staff working in the PET/CT facility.
