TY - JOUR
AR - RDI-2019-3-106
TI - The urgent need for protective shielding for personnel who administer radiopharmaceuticals
AU - James Robert, Brašić
JO - Radiology and Medical Diagnostic Imaging
PY - 2019
DA - Wed 26, Jun 2019
SN - 2613-7836
DO - http://dx.doi.org/10.31487/j.RDI.2019.03.06
UR - https://www.sciencerepository.org/the-urgent-need-for-protective-shielding-for-personnel-who-administer-radiopharmaceuticals_RDI-2019-3-106 
KW - Computed tomography (CT), estimation, mathematical modeling, nuclear medicine, occupational safety, positron emission tomography (PET), radiation exposure
AB - Traditional practices to administer radiopharmaceuticals to patients for positron emission tomography
involve exposure to ionizing radiation. Techniques developed to reduce radiation exposure to personnel who
inject radiopharmaceuticals may be considered unnecessary by experienced nuclear medicine personnel. A
69-year-old male nuclear medicine attending developed bilateral cataracts after 18 years of regular
administration of radiopharmaceuticals. Although protective shielding was not used for the first 14 years of
his practice, it was uniformly applied for the subsequent 4 years. Nuclear medicine personnel are advised to
use protective shielding and to design work improvement procedures to minimize radiation exposure for
staff and patients.