Author(s): Catherine Gell

Hospital: Cork University Hospital

Reference: RAD Magazine, 48, 563, 16-17

Excerpt: 

The main task of radiation protection is to ensure that the received radiation exposure is restricted to a minimum, thereby protecting everybody in the department.

The European Association of Nuclear Medicine procedure guidelines for 18F-FDG PETCT tumour imaging have outlined procedural steps for both manual and automatic administration techniques. Recent data on occupational exposure from 18F-FDG PETCT, collated by Skovorodkoa K et al, has shown that staff working in the PET unit received the highest radiation dose during patient injection and patient positioning on the scanner. According to the results of this study, the injection of the activity, 18F-FDG, contributed to more than a half of the exposure dose compared to other working steps.