Absorbed radiation doses to staff after implementation of a radiopharmacy clean room

In response to U.S. Pharmacopeia general chapter <797> standards, a clean room was constructed for our in-house radiopharmacy. Previously, most patient doses were prepared as needed just before injection. Currently, to minimize repeated entries into the clean room, most patient doses are prepared in batches; that is, early morning and noontime preparation of doses to be injected at various times throughout the morning and the afternoon, respectively. Because these patient doses may be prepared well before injection time, radioactive decay necessitates higher amounts of radioactivity to be handled for patient dose preparation. Hence, absorbed radiation doses to staff, all of whom rotate into the radiopharmacy clean room in addition to their regular patient-related activities, were retrospectively evaluated.

Monthly dosimetry reports for body (chest badge) and extremities (finger ring) were retrospectively reviewed for each staff member for 12 mo before and 12 mo after implementation of the radiopharmacy clean room. Monthly data were evaluated for average and SD, and 12-mo groups were evaluated using a paired t test. Data for the second 12-mo period were also normalized to the same number of patient doses to account for an increase in procedure volume and were reevaluated.

Before the radiopharmacy clean room had been implemented, average monthly absorbed radiation doses to body and extremities were 23 ± 15 mrem (0.23 ± 0.15 mSv) and 93 ± 59 mrem (0.93 ± 0.59 mSv), respectively. After the clean room had been implemented, average monthly absorbed radiation doses increased to 32 ± 16 mrem (0.32 ± 0.16 mSv) (P < 0.001) and 121 ± 89 mrem (1.21 ± 0.89 mSv) (P = 0.0015), respectively. When normalized for procedure volume, average monthly absorbed radiation doses after implementation of the clean room were still higher, at 29 ± 15 mrem (0.29 ± 0.15 mSv) (P = 0.001) and 110 ± 80 mrem (1.10 ± 0.80 mSv) (P = 0.039), respectively.

After implementation of a radiopharmacy clean room, absorbed radiation doses to body and extremities increased by 26% and 18%, respectively, even after normalizing for procedure volume. Because absorbed radiation doses from other activities, such as patient dose administration and patient imaging, are assumed to remain relatively constant, these increases in absorbed radiation doses to staff are attributed to changes in work flow after implementation of the radiopharmacy clean room.