Radiation risk to patients from nuclear medicine in Poland (1981)

This paper presents the method and results of an estimation of radiation risk to the patients subjected to in vivo diagnostic radio-isotopic procedures in Poland in 1981. The qualitative and quantitative structure of these examinations is also presented. The estimation of an expected number of the stochastic effects caused by the internal exposure to ionizing radiation from the administered radionuclides have been performed for the patients according to ICRP recommendations. The conclusion was that 33 fatal radiation induced cancers, caused mainly by thyroid procedures with 131I, may be expected in the future in the population of about 80,000 patients who were subjected to radioisotopic procedures in Poland in 1981.