Exposure of nuclear medicine technologists during pulmonary ventilation scan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25758/set.2141Keywords:
Dose rate, Lung ventilation scintigraphy, Nuclear medicine technologist exposure, Radiation safety and protection, 99mTc-TechnegasAbstract
Introduction – The ventilation technique requires a patient to inhale a radiopharmaceutical. During the procedure, the technologist risks being contaminated with radioactive gas. The aim of the study – To evaluate the exposure to radiation of the nuclear medicine technologists during lung ventilation studies with 99mTc-Technegas® through the monitoring of external contaminations of the hands and face. Methods – Measurement of four nuclear medicine technologists from two different nuclear medicine departments, using a Geiger-Müller counter. We measured the dose rate of the ventilation room background before and after the procedure, with and without the presence of the patient; we measured the dose rate on the hands (with and without the gloves used during the procedure) and on the face (with and without disposable facemask used during the procedure). The data was analyzed using SPSS statistic software, v. 22.0 for Windows. Results – We verified both departments showed higher dose rate values after the ventilation procedure while the patient stills in the room. Department Y showed higher dose rate values with a significate value of 5% on the hands with gloves on, on the gloves used during the procedure, on the face with the disposable mask on, and on the mask. Conclusions – The background dose rate rises with the increase in the number of ventilation studies performed. Gloves are an external barrier against direct contamination of the hands. Face masks reduce the contamination risk on the face.
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