Avaliação da dose de radiação ocupacional em medicina nuclear nos exames de cintilografia de perfusão miocárdica

Abstract

In nuclear medicine, workers directly involved in the exams are frequently exposed to ionizing radiation. In this study, a Geiger-Mueller detector was used to measure the occupational radiation doses while conducting some of the steps with critical radiation exposure during myocardial perfusion scintigraphy exams, which are: 1) fractionation of radiopharmaceutical activities in single-dose syringes, 2) Technetium99m-sestamibi administration during rest and stress steps, and 3) diagnostic images acquisition in the exam room. In the evaluation, it was sought to distinguish and relate the length of professional experience to measured doses. For that reason a total of 494 procedures were followed up including 229 fractionation of radiopharmaceutical activities in single-dose syringes, 165 radiopharmaceutical administrations (55 during rest step performed by professionals with experience time above two years, 55 during rest step performed by professionals with experience time below one year, and 55 during stress step), and 100 image acquisitions (50 during rest step and 50 during stress step). Dose records obtained during individual monitoring by thermoluminescent dosimetry (TLD) conducted between July 2010 and December 2012 were also evaluated. The results obtained by the GM detector, when extrapolated for dose accumulation over one year, proved to be significant in relation to the 20 mSv annual limit determined by Brazilian regulations to an average over five consecutive years. The mean accumulated doses evaluated during the procedures correspond to the following percentages relative to the annual limit value: 1) 13%, at the fractionation of radiopharmaceutical activities, 2) 8% and 35%, during rest and stress steps of radiopharmaceuticals administration, respectively, and 3) 4% and 10%, during rest and stress images acquisition, respectively. These values are consistent to the results of individual monitoring by TLD. These values were consistent to the results of individual monitoring by TLD, whose registered values were higher (34.6% to 63.2% of the limit of 20 mSv) due to the fact that they don't discriminate the dose by each procedure. Because of the dose values found, the use of personal protective equipment and the agility in procedures, linked to professional experience, effectively contribute to the reduction of these dose values.