Estimation of radiation dose received by the radiation worker during F-18 FDG injection process

BACKGROUND: The radiation dosimetric literature concerning the medical and non-medical personnel working in nuclear medicine departments are limited, particularly radiation doses received by radiation worker in nuclear medicine department during positron emission tomography (PET) radiopharmaceutical injection process. This is of interest and concern for the personnel. AIM: To measure the radiation dose received by the staff involved in injection process of Fluorine-18 Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The effective whole body doses to the radiation workers involved in injections of 1511 patients over a period of 10 weeks were evaluated using pocket dosimeter. Each patient was injected with 5 MBq/kg of F-18 FDG. The F18-FDG injection protocol followed in our department is as follows. The technologist dispenses the dose to be injected and records the pre-injection activity. The nursing staff members then secure an intravenous catheter. The nuclear medicine physicians/residents inject the dose on a rotation basis in accordance with ALARA principle. After the injection of the tracer, the nursing staff members flush the intravenous catheter. The person who injected the tracer then measures the post-injection residual dose in the syringe. RESULTS: The mean effective whole body doses per injection for the staff were the following: Nurses received 1.44±0.22 μSv/injection (3.71±0.48 nSv/MBq), for doctors the dose values were 2.44±0.25 μSv/injection (6.29±0.49 nSv/MBq) and for technologists the doses were 0.61±0.10 μSv/injection (1.58±0.21 nSv/MBq). It was seen that the mean effective whole body dose per injection of our positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) staff who were involved in the F18-FDG injection process was maximum for doctors (54.34% differential doses), followed by nurses (32.02% differential doses) and technologist (13.64% differential doses). CONCLUSION: This study confirms that low levels of radiation dose are received by staff during F18-FDG injection and these values can be used as a reference to allay any anxiety in the radiation workers.