A preliminary investigation on internal exposure dose of artificial radionuclides in nuclear medicine staff

Objective To tentatively understand the status of radioactive contamination in nuclear medicine personnel.

Methods A total of 34 radiation staff engaged in nuclear medicine diagnosis and treatment were selected from two hospitals in Shanghai as the survey subjects.Among the 34 medical staff， 8 were nuclear medicine doctors， 14 were nuclear medicine technicians and 12 were nuclear medicine nurses. After surface contamination monitoring was first carried out to confirm that they had no surface radioactivity contamination， whole body scanning was performed with a whole body counter to determine whether they were internally contaminated with artificial radionuclides.

Results The α surface contamination was not detected in the nuclear medical staff. The β surface contamination of the nuclear medicine doctors， technicians and nurses was （13.8±0.8）， （14.1±0.8） and （14.0±0.7） times per second， respectively. There were 2， 2， and 4 nuclear medicine doctors who were contaminated with ¹⁸F， ^99mTc and ¹³¹I， 3， 5， and 2 nuclear medicine technicians who were contaminated with ¹⁸F， ^99mTc and ¹³¹I， and 6， 8， and 5 nuclear medicine nurses who were contaminated with ¹⁸F， ^99mTc and ¹³¹I， respectively. The ¹⁸F activity of nuclear medicine technicians was 1 997‒9 401 Bq， and the ^99mTc activity of nuclear medicine technicians and nurses was 3 699‒18 692 and 652‒388 22 Bq， respectively. One nuclear medicine nurse had a ^99mTc activity of 35 389 Bq. According to the preliminary estimation of ¹³¹I internal irradiation dose， the maximum committed effective dose of nuclear medicine doctors， technicians and nurses could reach 0.370， 0.018 and 0.584 mSv， respectively.

Conclusion The nuclear medicine staff are exposed to radioactive contamination， and it is important to monitor and evaluate their internal radiation doses.