The syringe shield has been available for years but only recently has its use been made mandatory. This study investigates whether use of existing syringe shields in clinical practice would significantly reduce the radiation exposure to laboratory personnel. TLD's were worn on fingers of each hand by the radiopharmacist during preparation and by the physician during injection of 8ndash;10 doses of 15ndash;25 mCi99mTc for brain scintigraphy. The results showed that physician hand exposure is reduced from 20ndash;80percnt; from the use of syringe shields but the pharmacist exposure reduction is about 50percnt; maximum. The latter results primarily from the additional time required to read the volume accurately through the lead glass window. None of the physicians found the syringe shields to be a problem to the injection procedure, and if the patient experienced any added discomfort, it was not observable. Two conclusions are that syringe shields should be used for injecting high specific activity99mTc, and that the 1 cc shields currently on the market are unsatisfactory for nuclear medicine use.
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