Occupational radiation exposure in a nuclear medicine department in Bogotá, Colombia.

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate the radiation exposure received by workers in the nuclear medicine department of a private hospital in Bogotá, Colombia, during the period 2022-2023. The Hp (10) and Hp (0.07) readings for 15 workers including nuclear medicine (NM) physicians, nurses, and technologists who performed tasks in PET/CT and SPECT/CT were retrieved and analysed retrospectively. The results showed that in 2022, the average accumulated Hp (10) values for NM physicians, nurses, and technologists were, 1.5 ± 0.3 mSv, 1.9 ± 0.4 mSv, and 2.1 ± 0.6 mSv, respectively. Compared with 2022 (9.45 mSv vs 16.07 mSv), the mean annual extremity doses to nurses and technologists increased by 37.5% and 44.6%, respectively, in 2023 (15.11 mSv vs 29.05 mSv), due to the increase in the number of procedures. Technologists, particularly those responsible for preparing and administering the radiopharmaceuticals in PET/CT, recorded the maximum annual effective dose (3.0 mSv) and extremity dose (91.3 mSv) during 2022 and 2023.