Nuclear medicine technologists are frequently encounter radiation exposure while performing activities such as the preparation, labelling/synthesis, dispensing, and administration of radiopharmaceuticals, image acquisition on SPECT-CT, PET-CT scanners, area and personnel radiation level monitoring, and survey of radioactive waste management. Exposure levels can be notably higher while handling therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals like I-131, 177Lu , Sm-153 and Y-90. In India, carrier-added (CA) 177Lutetium (177Lu) radioisotopes are commonly used for the labelling of therapeutic purpose. Especially, a very few studies are available in the literature on personal dosimetry related to the labelling of non-carrier-added (NCA)177Lu radiopharmaceuticals. This study is to assess the whole-body radiation exposure received by technologists during synthesis of 177Lu-PSMA-617 (prostate specific membrane antigen) and 177Lu-DOTATATE (DOTA-Tyr3-octreotate). Furthermore, the occupational burden was compared with the occupational dose limits prescribed by various national, international regulatory authorities like Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), India and International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). Radiation exposure was measured by using a survey meter cum contamination monitor prior to initiating the labelling procedure. The instrument was positioned in the radio pharmacy lab where the technologists normally stands during the synthesis. To monitor personal radiation levels, the technologists were worn an electronic pocket dosimeter at chest level throughout labelling of 177Lu ra-diopharmaceuticals like DOTATATE, PSMA-617. A total of 15 177Lu-DOTATATE and 15 177Lu-PSMA-617 synthesis were included in this study, each followed by quality control test. Conclusion: According to our collected data, the technologist's whole-body radiation exposure during the manual radio labelling of 177Lu compounds was within the AERB recommended limits.
Murthy et al. (Wed,) studied this question.
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