Whole body and extremity doses of nuclear medicine personnel involved in manual and semi-automated methods of dispensing liquid iodine-131

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the whole body dose Hp (10) and extremity dose Hp (0.07) of nuclear medicine personnel who administered liquid I-131 by using manual and fabricated semi-automated dispenser system. The semi-automated dispenser system comprises of peristaltic pumps and a motor controller was developed for dispensing liquid I-131. Optically stimulated luminescent dosimeters (OSLD) were used on two radiopharmacists to evaluate the whole body dose HP (10). NanoDot dosimeters were placed on personnel fingers to measure extremity dose HP (0.07). The mean doses were calculated for both manual and automated dispensing techniques. The findings revealed a significant 87.65%–92.31% reduction in both whole body and extremity doses when utilising semi-automated dispenser system compared to manual dispensing. Additionally, the semi-automated dispenser system demonstrated high accuracy with ≤5% error in dispensing the prescribed amount of liquid I-131. The use of the semi-automated system resulted in a significant reduction in whole body and extremity doses due to less contact between personnel and the source, and high accuracy of the prescribed amount of I-131.