Occupational Exposure to Veterinary Workers from the Positron Emission Tomography Imaging Agent Cu-64-ATSM

摘要

Cu-64-ATSM is an emerging radiopharmaceutical for diagnostic use in positron emission tomography (PET), but to date there are no studies that assess the potential occupational doses to workers in either human or veterinary medicine. This study was aimed at determining the external radiation dose to veterinary workers from clinical PET/CT (PET combined with computed tomography) procedures using Cu-64-ATSM. To determine the dose to the workers, each worker was assigned two Electronic Personal Dosimeters (EPDs) to be worn on the chest and waist during the entirety of each procedure. The workers monitored during this study included a radiobiologist, a nuclear medicine technologist, an anesthesiologist, and a veterinary surgeon. Seven canine patients were imaged with an average mass of 33.7 kg (a range of 20.0-55.1 kg) with an average injected activity of 5 MBq kg(-1). The dose range for the radiobiologist was 2-17 Sv (mean of 7.1 Sv), for the nuclear medicine technologist 0-14 Sv (mean of 5.6 Sv), for the anesthesiologist 0-12 Sv (mean of 4.0 Sv), and for the surgeon 0-10 Sv (mean of 3.6 Sv). In a comparison between the results of this study and published literature on occupational exposures from veterinary FDG PET/CT procedures, Cu-64-ATSM veterinary PET/CT procedures, on a per patient bias, exposed workers to less radiation.