Active electronic personal dosemeter in interventional radiology

Interventional Radiology (IR) procedures when performed request a certain number of medical professionals always near the patient, which means, near the x- ray unit. Ensuring «safe» working environment in such, unavoidable scattered x-ray radiation is a new challenge to regular radiation protection. IR fluoroscopy is in frequency and in time duration irregular. Consequently scattered radiation is of low level intensity. Passive dosemeters give us data about the occupational dose over a control period, (usually monthly) only if dose rate is above a certain treshold. They do not record corresponding real data, for instance duration of actual occupational exposure etc.; film dosemeters due to low sensitivity, TLD due to readout uncertainties in spite of high sensitivity. We have developed and used active electronic dosemeter device which provide additional dosimetry data, including the frequency and duration of low level x-ray exposure burden. In this work, the equipment and patient were regarded as a secondary radiation source emitting scattered x-rays. Data were collected while performing percutaneous revascularization therapy procedures on pelvis and upper leg arteries. Every member of the medical team was additionally equipped with the electronic dosemeter. The electronic dosemeters recorded accumulated dose, starting time and duration of each deliberate performed fluoroscopic x-ray exposure during IR procedure. This occupational dose receiving pattern, or time dependent dose rate, is not accessible with passive dosemeters. Authors believe that this data can be useful while discussing the Linear Non Treshold (LNT) model. Patients were not intentionally exposed for the purpose of research.