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Estimation of close contact doses to young infants from surface dose rates on radioactive adults
1Department of Nuclear Medicine, Kent and Canterbury Hospital, UK.
Insights
A new method estimates infant radiation dose from radioactive parents, enabling safe contact without restrictions. This ensures infant safety following diagnostic radiopharmaceutical procedures.
Area of Science:
- Medical Physics
- Radiological Health
- Nuclear Medicine
Background:
- Infants can receive significant radiation exposure from parents undergoing radiopharmaceutical procedures.
- Accurate dose estimation is crucial for ensuring infant safety and determining necessary contact restrictions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a general method for estimating radiation dose to infants in close contact with a radioactive parent.
- To provide calculated effective exposure times for various radiopharmaceuticals.
- To enable quick upper estimates of close contact dose to inform safety instructions.
Main Methods:
- Calculated effective exposure times for simplified close contact periods.
- Utilized surface dose rate measurements on adults.
- Applied a method to estimate infant close contact dose.
Main Results:
- Doses to infants can be maintained below 1 millisievert (mSv) without contact restrictions.
- Activities of 131-I iodide exceeding 112 megabecquerels (MBq) can lead to close contact doses over 1 mSv.
Conclusions:
- The developed method provides a quick upper estimate for infant close contact dose.
- This facilitates informed decisions on restricting contact duration to minimize infant radiation exposure.
- Safe infant contact is achievable with diagnostic radiopharmaceutical procedures below specific activity thresholds.
Abstract:
A general method is given to estimate the dose to an infant held in close contact to a radioactive parent. Calculated values of effective exposure times are given for various radiopharmaceuticals corresponding to a simplified sequence of periods of close contact. When multiplied by a measurement of the dose rate on the surface of an adult, these times can be used to give a quick upper estimate of a close contact dose. This allows a decision whether it is necessary to issue instructions for restricting the duration of close contact to an adult patient, before the patient leaves a nuclear medicine department. Estimates of close contact dose have been made from measurements of surface dose rate using these effective exposure times. Doses to infants from adults who have undergone diagnostic radiopharmaceutical procedures can be kept below 1 mSv without imposing restrictions in close contact. A close contact dose of 1 mSv will be exceeded by activities of 131-I iodide greater than 112 MBq.