| Περίληψη: | The specific nature of work in nuclear medicine departments involves the use of isotopes and handling procedures, which contribute to the considerable value of the equivalent dose received, in particular, by the fingertips.
Workers of nuclear medicine units who label radiopharmaceuticals are exposed to ionizing radiation. The doses of nuclear medicine workers determined by individual dosimeters, which supply data on the magnitude of personal dose equivalent. The dosimetry pointing to a considerable optimization of the radiological protection among that professional group. However, the problem of the excessive hand exposure had been noted already in the early 1980s. Systematic studies were undertaken in West Scotland. The difficulties associated with automation of radiopharmaceutical preparation process are responsible for the continuing growth of exposure to the hands of the workers. Similar studies have also been undertaken, e.g. in Chile, Norway, Australia, Italy, USA, Belgium(1).
In each case, special attention has been paid to the exposure of nuclear medicine worker hands. The radiopharmacists who label various ligands can be exposed to high radiation doses to their fingertips (primarily of the thumb, index finger and middle finger). Quite frequently, the Hp(0.07) to the fingertips of those three fingers may exceed the dose limit, i.e. value of 500 mSv/y for the skin of human fingers, this dose limit refers to the maximum dose recorded(2).
Specific difficulty in assessing the exposures of the most affected finger parts is aggravated by the fact that the universally employed method for the determination of the radiation doses received by the hands using a ring with attached thermoluminescence detectors is not adequate in this particular case. This measurement method is inadequate because distribution of the doses received by the skin of the hands and fingers is extremely non uniform.
The main aim of the study was to measure the absorbed dose at the hands of the personnel by using thermoluminescent detectors
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