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Struelens L, Huet C, Broggio D, Dabin J, Desorgher L, Giussani A, Li WB, Nosske D, Lee YK, Cunha L, Carapinha MJR, Medvedec M, Covens P. Joint EURADOS-EANM initiative for an advanced computational framework for the assessment of external dose rates from nuclear medicine patients. EJNMMI Phys 2024; 11:38. [PMID: 38647987 PMCID: PMC11035505 DOI: 10.1186/s40658-024-00638-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/10/2023] [Accepted: 03/28/2024] [Indexed: 04/25/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND In order to ensure adequate radiation protection of critical groups such as staff, caregivers and the general public coming into proximity of nuclear medicine (NM) patients, it is necessary to consider the impact of the radiation emitted by the patients during their stay at the hospital or after leaving the hospital. Current risk assessments are based on ambient dose rate measurements in a single position at a specified distance from the patient and carried out at several time points after administration of the radiopharmaceutical to estimate the whole-body retention. The limitations of such an approach are addressed in this study by developing and validating a more advanced computational dosimetry approach using Monte Carlo (MC) simulations in combination with flexible and realistic computational phantoms and time activity distribution curves from reference biokinetic models. RESULTS Measurements of the ambient dose rate equivalent Ḣ*(10) at 1 m from the NM patient have been successfully compared against MC simulations with 5 different codes using the ICRP adult reference computational voxel phantoms, for typical clinical procedures with 99mTc-HDP/MDP, 18FDG and Na131I. All measurement data fall in the 95% confidence intervals, determined for the average simulated results. Moreover, the different MC codes (MCNP-X, PHITS, GATE, GEANT4, TRIPOLI-4®) have been compared for a more realistic scenario where the effective dose rate Ė of an exposed individual was determined in positions facing and aside the patient model at 30 cm, 50 cm and 100 cm. The variation between codes was lower than 8% for all the radiopharmaceuticals at 1 m, and varied from 5 to 16% for the face-to face and side-by-side configuration at 30 cm and 50 cm. A sensitivity study on the influence of patient model morphology demonstrated that the relative standard deviation of Ḣ*(10) at 1 m for the range of included patient models remained under 16% for time points up to 120 min post administration. CONCLUSIONS The validated computational approach will be further used for the evaluation of effective dose rates per unit administered activity for a variety of close-contact configurations and a range of radiopharmaceuticals as part of risk assessment studies. Together with the choice of appropriate dose constraints this would facilitate the setting of release criteria and patient restrictions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lara Struelens
- Belgian Nuclear Research Center (SCK CEN), Nuclear Medical Applications, Boeretang 200, 2400, Mol, Belgium.
| | - Christelle Huet
- Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN), PSE-SANTE/SDOS, 31 Avenue de La Division Leclerc, 92260, Fontenay-Aux-Roses, France
| | - David Broggio
- Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN), PSE-SANTE/SDOS, 31 Avenue de La Division Leclerc, 92260, Fontenay-Aux-Roses, France
| | - Jérémie Dabin
- Belgian Nuclear Research Center (SCK CEN), Nuclear Medical Applications, Boeretang 200, 2400, Mol, Belgium
| | - Laurent Desorgher
- Institute of Radiation Physics, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Augusto Giussani
- Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS), Ingolstädter Landstr. 1, 85764, Oberschleißheim, Germany
| | - Wei Bo Li
- Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS), Ingolstädter Landstr. 1, 85764, Oberschleißheim, Germany
| | - Dietmar Nosske
- Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS), Ingolstädter Landstr. 1, 85764, Oberschleißheim, Germany
| | - Yi-Kang Lee
- Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, Service d'études des réacteurs et de mathématiques appliquées, 91191, Gif-Sur-Yvette, France
| | - Lidia Cunha
- Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, IsoPor-Azores, Canada do Breado, 9700, Angra Do Heroismo, Azores, Portugal
| | - Maria J R Carapinha
- ESTeSL-Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Saúde, Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal
| | - Mario Medvedec
- Department of Nuclear Medicine and Radiation Protection, University Hospital Centre Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Peter Covens
- Molecular Imaging and Therapy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium
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