STUDY OF DOSES TO HIPPOCAMPUS OF INTERVENTIONAL CARDIOLOGISTS AND THEIR IMPLICATION FOR DOSIMETRIC MONITORING

Dosimetric monitoring and protection of the personnel involved into interventional procedures is one of the key issues nowadays, yet doses received by their brains were left without rigorous consideration so far. The paper is the fast track of the results of the pilot study of possible magnitude of operator's doses with particular focus on difference between doses in left and right hippocampi and their relation to effective doses of personnel using protective aprons. Monte Carlo simulation of irradiation in a typical interventional cardiology (IC) operation room shows that for standard C-arm angulations difference in doses between left and right hippocampi can be as large as 5-fold (depending on energy and projection), under certain conditions dose to left (most exposed) hippocampus can be up to two times higher than effective dose estimated by a common double dosimetry algorithm. This finding calls for closer attention to possible manifestations of health detriment associated with occupational irradiation of left hippocampus in course of IC practice.