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Multicenter Study
. 2018 May;287(2):676-682.
doi: 10.1148/radiol.2018171138. Epub 2018 Feb 1.

A U.S. Multicenter Study of Recorded Occupational Radiation Badge Doses in Nuclear Medicine

Daphnée Villoing  1 , R Craig Yoder  1 , Christopher Passmore  1 , Marie-Odile Bernier  1 , Cari M Kitahara  1
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

A U.S. Multicenter Study of Recorded Occupational Radiation Badge Doses in Nuclear Medicine

Daphnée Villoing et al. Radiology. 2018 May.

Abstract

Purpose To summarize occupational badge doses recorded for a sample of U.S. nuclear medicine technologists. Materials and Methods Nine large U.S. medical institutions identified 208 former and current nuclear medicine technologists certified after 1979 and linked these individuals to historic badge dose records maintained by a commercial dosimetry company (Landauer), yielding a total of 2618 annual dose records. The distributions of annual and cumulative occupational doses were described by using summary statistics. Results Between 1992 and 2015, the median annual personal dose equivalent per nuclear medicine technologist was 2.18 mSv (interquartile range [IQR], 1.25-3.47 mSv; mean, 2.69 mSv). Median annual personal dose equivalents remained relatively constant over this period (range, 1.40-3.30 mSv), while maximum values generally increased over time (from 8.00 mSv in 1992 to 13.9 mSv in 2015). The median cumulative personal dose equivalent was 32.9 mSv (IQR, 18.1-65.5 mSv; mean, 51.4 mSv) for 45 technologists who had complete information and remained employed through 2015. Conclusion Occupational radiation doses were well below the established occupational limits and were consistent with those observed for nuclear medicine technologists worldwide and were greater than those observed for nuclear and general medical workers in the United States These results should be informative for radiation monitoring and safety efforts in nuclear medicine departments. © RSNA, 2018 Online supplemental material is available for this article.

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Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:
Graph shows distribution of the 2618 annual personal dose equivalents collected in our sample of 208 nuclear medicine technologists from 1979 to 2015.
Figure 2:
Figure 2:
Box-and-whisker plot of the trends of annual personal dose equivalents per calendar year from 1992 to 2015.
Figure 3:
Figure 3:
Distribution of the 208 mean annual personal dose equivalents per technologist from 1992 to 2015.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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