Radiation Doses from Patients to Staff Members, Comforters and Caregivers and to the General Population

Abstract

A nuclear medicine patient contains radioactive material and is thus, for radiation protection purposes, to be considered as a source of ionising radiation potentially leading to exposure of other individuals. In the first part of this chapter, typical doses to various target groups of patients undergoing some of the most important nuclear medicine procedures are reviewed. In the second part, dose assessment methods are introduced. A basic model for calculation of doses due to external irradiation from a patient is described, and some possible refinements are reviewed. Exposures due to contamination from nuclear medicine patients and problems arising from special circumstances such as medical interventions, post-mortem situations and problems arising from security checks are briefly discussed at the end of the chapter.