Measures to Reduce Occupational Radiation Exposure in Clinical PET: A Study at Nishidai Clinic Diagnostic Imaging Center

Recently, FDG PET has become one of extremely important diagnostic imaging modalities. Initially, only several FDG PET examinations were performed per day at Nishidai Clinic Diagnostic Imaging Center. At present, however, approximately 40 FDG PET examinations have been performing per day using five positron cameras. Exposure dose to medical staffs increased owing to the increasing number of FDG PET examinations. To keep the exposure dose to the minimum, we designed the new measures as follows; reduction of hours, which require for a study results explanation just after study, introduction of an automatic injection system, and increase of the number of employees. In particular, the introduction of an automatic injection system, which is able to accurately measure radioactivity in a syringe, lowered the exposure dose of staffs in the injection room. The mean exposure doses of the staffs were 8.55μSv before and 1.30μSv after the introduction. The measures we designed seem helpful to reduce exposure dose of staffs in institutions associated with FDG PET examinations.