Estimation of blood and bone marrow doses of thyroid carcinoma patients treated with ¹³¹I through gamma spectrometry

¹³¹I therapy is the treatment for patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) to ablate remnant thyroid tissue after surgery. The aim of this study was to estimate the absorbed doses to the blood and bone marrow of patients with DTC using gamma spectrometry. The evaluation of the absorbed dose in blood and bone marrow is a good indicator of a patient's response and its radiological protection. The average of low activities administered (AAAL) to ten patients was 3.20 GBq and the average of high activities administered (AAAH) to eight patients was 4.95 GBq. The blood and bone marrow doses were determined according to Lassmann et al 2008, performing successive measurements of activity in blood samples and whole body. Blood samples of 2 ml were taken during the first 48 h; the first one was extracted 2 h after the administration of the capsule and the following ones were taken every 12 h. The whole-body measurements were made at regular intervals of time throughout the patient's isolation period using a mobile gamma spectrometry system located inside the isolation room of the Dr Hernán Henríquez Aravena Hospital. The average residence times in blood and whole-body were (6.9 ± 1.7) × 10^-4 h ml^-1 and (23.2 ± 4.5) h, respectively. The average doses in blood and bone marrow of patients with AAAL were (0.33 ± 0.09) Gy and (0.63 ± 0.18) Gy, respectively, and with AAAH were (0.48 ± 0.06) Gy and (0.87 ± 0.19) Gy, respectively. In all studied patients, the bone marrow doses were less than 2 Gy. The results were compared with the previously published values, finding some differences between the residence times and significant differences in the doses, which show the need to compare the different methodologies.