It is known that medical applications using ionising radiation are wide spread and still increasing. Physicians, technicians, nurses and others constitute the largest group of workers occupationally exposed to man-made sources of radiation. Many hospital workers are consequently subjected to routine monitoring of professional radiation exposures. in the university hospital, UZ Brussel, 600 out of 4000 staff members are daily monitored for external radiation exposures. The most obvious applications of ionising radiation are diagnostic radiology, diagnostic or therapeutic use of radionuclides in nuclear medicine and external radiation therapy or brachytherapy in radiotherapy departments. Other important applications also include various procedures in interventional radiology (IR), in vitro biomedical research and radiopharmaceutical production around cyclotrons. Besides the fact that many of the staff members, involved in these applications, are not measurably exposed, detailed studies were carried out at workplaces where routine dose monitoring encounters difficulties and for some applications where relatively high occupational exposures can be found. most of the studies are concentrated around nuclear medicine applications and IR. They contain assessments of both effective dose and doses at different parts of the body. The results contribute to better characterisation of the different workplaces in a way that critical applications can be identified. Moreover, conclusions point out future needs for practical routine dose monitoring and optimisation of radiation protection.

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Targeted alpha-particle therapy (TAT) might be a relevant therapeutic strategy to circumvent resistance to conventional therapies in the case of HER2-positive metastatic cancer. Single-domain antibody fragments (sdAb) are promising vehicles for TAT because of their excellent in vivo properties, high target affinity, and fast clearance kinetics. This study combines the cytotoxic α-particle emitter bismuth-213 ( 213 Bi) and HER2targeting sdAbs. The in vitro specificity, affinity, and cytotoxic potency of the radiolabeled complex were analyzed on HER2 pos cells. Its in vivo biodistribution through serial dissections and via Cherenkov and micro-single-photon emission computed tomography (CT)/CT imaging was evaluated. Finally, the therapeutic efficacy and potential associated toxicity of [ 213 Bi]Bi-DTPA-2Rs15d were evaluated in a HER2 pos tumor model that manifests peritoneal metastasis. In vitro, [ 213 Bi]Bi-DTPA-2Rs15d bound HER2 pos cells in a HER2-specific way. In mice, high tumor uptake was reached already 15 min after injection, and extremely low uptake values were observed in normal tissues. Co-infusion of gelofusine resulted in a 2-fold reduction in kidney uptake. Administration of [ 213 Bi]Bi-DTPA-2Rs15d alone and in combination with trastuzumab resulted in a significant increase in median survival. We describe for the very first time the successful labeling of an HER2-sdAb with the α-emitter 213 Bi, and after intravenous administration, revealing high in vivo stability and specific accumulation in target tissue and resulting in an increased median survival of these mice especially in combination with trastuzumab. These results indicate the potential of [ 213 Bi]Bi-DTPA-sdAb as a new radioconjugate for TAT, alone and as an add-on to trastuzumab for the treatment of HER2 pos metastatic cancer.

Significant staff exposure is generally expected during PET-and PET/CT applications. Whole-body doses as well as extremity doses are usually higher per procedure compared with SPECT applications. Dispensing individual patient doses and manual injection involves high extremity doses even when heavy weighted syringe shields are used. In some cases the external radiation causes an exposure to the fingertips of more than 500 mSv y(-1), which is the yearly limit. Whole-body doses per procedure are relatively lower compared with extremity doses and are generally spread over the entire procedure (Guillet, B., Quentin, P., Waultier, S., Bourrelly, M., Pisano, P. and Mundler, O. Technologist radiation exposure in routine clinical practice with 18F-FDG PET. J. Nucl. Med. Technol. 33, 175-179 (2005). Optimisation of the individual workload is often used to restrict staff doses, but many PET centres face the need for further optimisation to reduce the staff doses to an acceptable level. During this study the effect of the use of an automated dispensing and injection system for (18)FDG on whole-body doses and extremity doses was evaluated. Detailed dosimetric studies using thermoluminescent and direct ion storage dosimetry were carried out before and after the introduction of this system. The results show that the extremity doses can be reduced by more than 95 % up to a mean level of 10 muSv per handled GBq. At the same time, whole-body doses can be halved during injection of the tracer. This results in a dose reduction of 20 % during the entire procedure of injection, escorting and positioning. In this way, the study shows that with the use of automated dispensing and injection a considerable staff dose reduction can be obtained.

A general overview is given on the use of extremity dosemeters, their calibration, the units and phantoms to be used. One of the major applications of extremity dosemeters is to monitor the personnel in a hospital environment. In nuclear medicine, brachytherapy and interventional radiology (IR) skin doses to hands and legs can be substantial. Here, we report on two studies that are presently being undertaken in Belgium. The first one tries to map the dose distribution on the hands, in function of the manipulation in nuclear medicine. Some preliminary results are also given from a nationwide survey study for patient and personnel doses during IR and cardiology. The radiologists' hands, legs and forehead are monitored during a whole range of procedures in different hospitals.

Skin contamination can be found in large doses on the skin among nuclear medicine technologists. Single contaminations can result in local skin doses exceeding the yearly dose limit because of the contribution of electrons at shallow depths and should therefore be prevented at any time. The use of a neutral hand soap should generally be preferred during decontamination. A general simplified method is proposed to assess the skin dose after a contamination with 99mTc-labelled radiopharmaceuticals or 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose.

This study describes the retrospective lens dose calculation methods developed and applied within the European epidemiological study on radiation-induced lens opacities among interventional cardiologists. While one approach focuses on self-reported data regarding working practice in combination with available procedure-specific eye lens dose values, the second approach focuses on the conversion of the individual whole-body dose to eye lens dose. In contrast with usual dose reconstruction methods within an epidemiological study, a protocol is applied resulting in an individual distribution of possible cumulative lens doses for each recruited cardiologist, rather than a single dose estimate. In this way, the uncertainty in the dose estimate (from measurement uncertainty and variability among cardiologists) is represented for each individual. Eye lens dose and whole-body dose measurements have been performed in clinical practice to validate both methods, and it was concluded that both produce acceptable results in the framework of a dose-risk evaluation study. Optimal results were obtained for the dose to the left eye using procedure-specific lens dose data in combination with information collected on working practice. This method has been applied to 421 interventional cardiologists resulting in a median cumulative eye lens dose of 15.1 cSv for the left eye and 11.4 cSv for the right eye. From the individual cumulative eye lens dose distributions obtained for each cardiologist, maxima up to 9-10 Sv were observed, although with low probability. Since whole-body dose values above the lead apron are available for only a small fraction of the cohort and in many cases not for the entire working career, the second method has only been used to benchmark the results from the first approach. This study succeeded in improving the retrospective calculation of cumulative eye lens doses in the framework of radiation-induced risk assessment of lens opacities, but it remains dependent on self-reported information, which is not always reliable for early years. However, the calculation tools developed can also be used to make an assessment of the eye lens dose in current practice.

Skin contamination with radiopharmaceuticals can occur during biomedical research and daily nuclear medicine practice as a result of accidental spills, after contact with bodily fluids of patients or by inattentively touching contaminated materials. Skin dose assessment should be carried out by repeated quantification to map the course of the contamination together with the use of appropriate skin dose rate conversion factors. Contamination is generally characterised by local spots on the palmar surface of the hand and complete decontamination is difficult as a result of percutaneous absorption. This specific issue requires special consideration as to the skin dose rate conversion factors as a measure for the absorbed dose rate to the basal layer of the epidermis. In this work we used Monte Carlo simulations to study the influence of the contamination area, the epidermal thickness and the percutaneous absorption on the absorbed skin dose rate conversion factors for a set of 39 medical radionuclides. The results show that the absorbed dose to the basal layer of the epidermis can differ by up to two orders of magnitude from the operational quantity Hp(0.07) when using an appropriate epidermal thickness in combination with the effect of percutaneous absorption.