Personal dosimetry for interventional operators: when and how should monitoring be done?

Abstract

Objective: Assessment of the potential doses to the hands and eyes for interventional radiologists and cardiologists can be difficult. A review of studies of doses to interventional operators reported in the literature has been undertaken.

Methods: Distributions for staff dose to relevant parts of the body per unit dose-area product and for doses per procedure in cardiology have been analysed and mean, median and quartile values derived. The possibility of using these data to provide guidance for estimation of likely dose levels is considered.

Results: Dose indicator values that could be used to predict orders of magnitude of doses to the eye, thyroid and hands from interventional operator workloads have been derived, based on the third quartile values, from the distributions of dose results analysed.

Conclusion: Dose estimates made in this way could be employed in risk assessments when reviewing protection and monitoring requirements. Data on the protection provided by different shielding and technique factors have also been reviewed to provide information for risk assessments. Recommendations on the positions in which dosemeters are worn should also be included in risk assessments, as dose measurements from suboptimal dosemeter use can be misleading.

Figure 1

Diagrammatic representations of the distributions of dose across the left hand based on data from thermoluminescent dosemeter studies for (a) interventional procedures using femoral access and (b) percutaneous procedures relative to the dose recorded at the ring position on the little finger taken from [16]. In both cases the left hand is assumed to be closest to the X-ray tube and image intensifier. Reproduced with permission from Oxford University Press.