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Interventional radiologists have a higher rate of chromosomal damage due to occupational radiation exposure: a dicentric chromosome assay

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Abstract

Objectives

There are growing concerns regarding radiation exposure in medical workers who perform interventional fluoroscopy procedures. Owing to the nature of certain interventional procedures, workers may be subjected to partial-body radiation exposure that is high enough to cause local damage. We aimed to investigate the level of radiation exposure in interventional radiologists in South Korea by performing cytogenetic biodosimetry, particularly focusing on partial-body exposure.

Methods

Interventional radiologists (n = 52) completed a questionnaire, providing information about their work history and practices. Blood samples were collected and processed for a dicentric chromosome assay. We determined Papworth’s U-value to assess the conformity of dicentrics with the Poisson distribution to estimate the partial-body exposures of the radiologists.

Results

Radiologists had a higher number of dicentrics than the normal population and industrial radiographers. Indeed, subjects with a U-value of > 1.96, an indicator of heterogeneous exposure, were observed more frequently; 4.67 ± 0.81% of their body was irradiated at an average dose of 4.64 ± 0.67 Gy. Logistic regression analysis revealed that the total duration of all interventional procedures per week was associated with partial-body exposure levels.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that interventional radiologists had greater chromosomal damages than those in other occupational groups, and their partial-body exposure levels might be high enough to cause local damage. Use of special dosimeters to monitor partial-body exposure, as well as restricting the time and frequency of interventional procedures, could help reduce occupational radiation exposure.

Key Points

• Interventional radiologists had a higher number of dicentrics than the normal population and industrial radiographers.

• The level of partial-body exposure of interventional radiologists might be high enough to cause occupational local damage such as a skin cancer in fingers.

• Restricting the duration and frequency of interventional procedures might be helpful in reducing occupational radiation exposure.

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Abbreviations

DCA:

Dicentric chromosome analysis

NDT:

Non-destructive testing

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Ms. Su San Yang and Yang Hee Lee for their technical support during this study. We thank Dr. Ainsbury in Public Health England, UK, for kindly providing the Dose Estimate program.

Funding

This work was supported by the Korea Ministry of Health and Welfare and Center for Disease Control and Prevention (grant no. 2017E3600600) and the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission Republic of Korea (grant no. 1803014).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Biological Dosimetry, National Radiation Emergency Medical Center, Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Younghyun Lee & Seongjae Jang

  2. Department of Preventive Medicine, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Won Jin Lee

  3. National Radiation Emergency Medical Center, Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Young Woo Jin

Authors
  1. Younghyun Lee
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  2. Won Jin Lee
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  4. Seongjae Jang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Seongjae Jang.

Ethics declarations

Guarantor

The scientific guarantor of this publication is Seongjae Jang.

Conflict of interest

The authors of this manuscript declare no relationships with any companies whose products or services may be related to the subject matter of the article.

Statistics and biometry

No complex statistical methods were necessary for this paper.

Informed consent

Written informed consent was obtained from all subjects in this study.

Ethical approval

Institutional Review Board approval was obtained.

Study subjects or cohorts overlap

Comparison groups (normal population and industrial radiographers) have been previously reported in Jang et al (2016) and Lee et al (2020).

Jang S, Lee JK, Cho M, Yang SS, Kim SH, Kim WT (2016) Consecutive results of blood cell count and retrospective biodosimetry: useful tools of health protection regulation for radiation workers. Occup Environ Med 73:694-700

Lee Y, Seo S, Jin YW, Jang S (2020) Assessment of working environment and personal dosimeter-wearing compliance of industrial radiographers based on chromosome aberration frequencies. J Radiol Prot 40:151-164

The subjects were used to compare their chromosomal damages with those in interventional radiologists.

Methodology

• retrospective

• cross-sectional study

• multicenter study

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Lee, Y., Lee, W.J., Jin, Y.W. et al. Interventional radiologists have a higher rate of chromosomal damage due to occupational radiation exposure: a dicentric chromosome assay. Eur Radiol 31, 8256–8263 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-021-07883-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-021-07883-0

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