Five-year experience with staff dose for PET/CT at PSMMC in Saudi Arabia
Conference Paper
A.Alenezi, K.Soliman, . 2016
نوع عمل المنشور:
Abstract 0013
رابط المنشور على الويب:
اسم المؤتمر:
International conference on radiation research
عنوان المؤتمر:
Impact on human health and environment (ICRR-HHE 2016) and first biennial meeting of society for radiation research'
تاريخ المؤتمر:
الخميس, شباط (فبراير) 11, 2016
مستخلص المنشور:
The number of installed PET/CT scanners is increasing leading to an increased workload which could result in higher radiation dose received by nuclear medicine workers responsible for conducting the imaging studies in clinical environment. An effort should be made to further optimize the current dose reduction methods employed to achieve "as low as reasonably achievable" (ALARA) levels. The aim of this work is to provide an overview of the recent techniques used to reduce the occupational radiation doses in PET/CT practice. The worker radiation dose in PET/CT is higher than in conventional nuclear medicine practice. The higher radiation dose is mainly from the high energy annihilation photons. The highest radiation exposures to the involved staff occur during the dispensing, injection of the Radiopharmaceuticals and performing direct communications with the injected patients at close range. During the period of five years of PET/CT practice at Prince Sultan military medical city (PSMMC) in Saudi Arabia, we have implemented several methods for staff dose optimization. The methods included the following: (1) Training and experience of PET/CT staff, (2) use of time of flight (TOF) technology, (3) optimized design and layout of the department, (4) use of lead shields and automatic dispensing/injection systems. The results from implementing the dose optimization methods are reflected on the staff occupational dose records by a reduction of 55% over a period of 5 years.The presented data can be applied to optimize radiation protection practices during PET/CT imaging procedures.