Occupational Radiation Protection in Interventional Radiology: A Joint Guideline of the Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology Society of Europe and the Society of Interventional Radiology

摘要

Fluoroscopically guided interventional procedures are performed in large numbers in Europe and in the United States. The number of procedures performed annually throughout the world has increased over the past 20 years. The benefits of interventional radiology to patients are both extensive and beyond dispute, but many of these procedures also have the potential to produce patient radiation doses high enough to cause radiation effects and occupational doses to interventional radiologists high enough to cause concern. A joint SIRCIRSE guideline on patient radiation management has addressed patient issues. This guideline is intended to serve as a companion to that document and provides guidance to help minimize occupational radiation dose. The radiation dose received by interventional radiologists can vary by more than an order of magnitude for the same type of procedure and for similar patient dose. Recently, there has been particular concern regarding occupational dose to the lens of the eye in interventional radiologists. New data from exposed human populations suggest that lens opacities (cataracts) occur at doses far lower than those previously believed to cause cataracts. Statistical analysis of the available data suggests absence of a threshold dose, although if one does exist, it is possible that it is less than 0.1 Gy. Additionally, it appears that the latency period for radiation cataract formation is inversely related to the radiation dose.