Proposed Dose Constraints in the Duties of Radiation Workers at the Department of Nuclear Medicine

Abstract

This study aimed to set a dose constraint for certain duties of radiological technologists in the department of nuclear medicine. From 2013 to 2017, the 5 y radiation exposure data of employees performing PET-CT and γ-CAMERA of eight hospitals in Korea were measured individual exposure doses to estimate the frequency and set a representative dose of 75 and 95% from the low dose in the whole category is presented. The dose constraint was 5.5 mSv for PET-CT, 4.5 mSv for γ-CAMERA and 3.5 mSv for Positron Emission Tomography (PET)-Computed Tomography(CT) and Gamma CAMERA (γ-CAMERA). Therefore, it would be appropriate to set a dose-limit value of ~5 mSv corresponding to 75-80% of the individual exposure dose of radiological technologists in the department of nuclear medicine. The finding of this study may be used as reference data for setting future radiation dose limits.