• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.3-6
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• 2013

Purpose: The treatment of thyroid cancer patients was continuously increased. According to the increment of thyroid cancer patients, the establishment of iodine therapy site was also increased in each hospital. This treatment involves the administration of radioactive iodine, which will be given in the form of a capsule. Therefore, protections and managements for radioactive source pollution and radiation exposure should be necessary for radiation safety. Among the many problems, the problem of disposing the radioactive wastes was occurred. In this study, The date for self-disposal for radioactive wastes, which were contaminated in clothes, bedclothes and trash, were calculated. Materials and Methods: The number of iodine therapy ward was 15 in Korea Institute of Radiological Medical and Sciences. Recently, 8 therapy wards were operated for iodine therapy patients and others were on standby for emergency treatment ward of any radiation accidents. Radioactive wastes, which were occurred in therapy ward, were clothes, bedclothes, bath cover for patients washing water and food and drink which was leftover by patients. Each sample was hold into the marinelli beaker (clothes, bedclothes, bath covers) and 90 ml beaker (food, drink, and washing water). The activities of collected samples were measured by HpGe MCA device (Multi Channel Analysis, CANBERRA, USA) Results: The storage period for the each kind of radioactive wastes was calculated by equation of storage periods based on the measurement outcomes. The average storage period was 60 days for the case of clothes, and the maximum storage period was 93 days for patient bottoms. The average storage period and the maximum storage period for the trash were 69 days and 97 days, respectively. The leftover foods and drinks had short storage period (the average storage period was 25 days and maximum storage period was 39 days), compared with other wastes. Conclusion: The proper storage period for disposing the radioactive waste (clothes, bedclothes and bath cover) was 100 days by the regulation on self-disposal of radioactive waste. In addition, the storage period for disposing the liquid radioactive waste was 120 days. The current regulation for radioactive waste self-disposing was not suitable for the circumstances of each radioactive therapy facility. Therefore, it was necessary to reduce the leftover food and drinks by adequate table setting for patients, and improve the process and regulation for disposing the short-half life radioactive wastes.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.49-54
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• 2017

Purpose The high-dose administration of I-131 has been standing for the basic therapy method of thyroid cancer. In korea, it is not necessary for patients to be hospitalized if the administration dose are under 1.2 GBq. However, if the dose are over 1.2 GBq, the patients should be stay in special ward with radiation shield. In such cases, the radioactivity level upon release should be under a dose of $70{\mu}Sv/hr$ at a distance of approx. 1m. This regulation bring the patients to stay for about 2 to 3 days in ward before the release. Materials and Methods Using the inpatients' release data of severance hospital, an inpatient-days were retrospectively calculated and compared with practical data and estimate the inpatient-days with the conditions of korea ($70{\mu}Sv/hr$), Japan ($30{\mu}Sv/hr$), germany ($3.5{\mu}Sv/hr$ at a distance of approx. 2 m), and other european countries. Results When a effective half-life of 15.4 was used, the expected inpatient-days were calculated as 2.15 days in the condition of Japanese regulation and 1.37 days in the condition of korean regulation. The practical inpatient-days of patients in Severance hospital were 1.32 days. Conclusion As ICRP 94 has been mentioned that the release of patients administrated with I-131 for the therapy should be carefully considered because each patients has different thyroid uptake rate and their conditions with family members after the release from the ward. Nonetheless, efforts to bring more aquate data which is for getting closer to the practical data should be continuously studied.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.119-122
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• 2008

Radioiodine (I-131) Therapy has been known one of the methods treated with hyperthyroidism and thyroid tumor, using a separate ward. This technique has been already used for several decades, and its clinical efficacy proven. Today, Radioiodine takes a form of capsule through continuous development, so, 30 odd domestic hospitals run about 63 separate wards. And, its demands would increase continuously; because of tending upwards the patients had thyroid cancer. However, various kinds of wastes originate from a procedure of radioiodine therapy. Especially, when their radioactivity exceed permissible level (4 Bq/$cm^2$) set by Nuclear laws of the Republic of Korea, it regards as radioactive wastes, then, managed separately from origination to the last disposal.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.62-66
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• 2013

Purpose: I-131 is a radioisotope widely used for thyroid gland treatments. The physical half life is 8.01 and characterized by emitting beta and gamma rays which is used in clinical practice for the purpose of acquiring treatment and images. In order to reduce the recurrence rate after surgery in high-risk thyroid cancer patients, the remaining thyroid tissue is either removed or the I-131 is used for treatment during relapse. In cases of using a high dosage of radioactive iodine requiring hospitalization, the patient is administered dosage in the hospital isolation ward over a certain period of time preventing I-131 exposure to others. By checking the radiation amount emitted from patients before discharge, the patients are discharged after checking whether they meet the legal standards (50 uSv/h). After patients are discharged from the hospital, the contamination level is checked in many parts of the ward before the next patients are hospitalized and when necessary, decontamination operations are performed. It is expected that there is exposure to radiation when measuring the ward contamination level and dose check emitted from patients at the time of discharge whereby the radiation exposure by health workers that come from the patients in this process is the main factor. This study analyzed the correlation between discharge dose of patients and ward contamination level through a variety of factors such as renal functions, gender, age, dosage, etc.). Materials and Method: The study was conducted on 151 patients who received high-dosage radioactive iodine treatment at Soon Chun Hyang University Hospital during the period between 8/1/2011~5/31/2012 (Male: Female: 31:120, $47.5{\pm}11.9$, average dosage of $138{\pm}22.4$ mCi). As various factors expected to influence the patient discharge dose & ward contamination such as the beds, floors, bathroom floors, and washbasins, the patient renal function (GFR), age, gender, dosage, and the correlation between the expected Tg & Tg-Tb expected to reflect the remaining tissue in patients were analyzed. Results: In terms of the discharge dose and GFR, a low correlation was shown in the patient discharge dose as the GFR was higher (p < 0.0001). When comparing the group with a dosage of over 150mCi and the group with a lower dosage, the lower dosage group showed a significantly lower discharge dose ($24{\pm}10.4uSv/h$ vs $28.7{\pm}11.8uSv/h$, p<0.05). Age, gender, Tg, Tg-Tb did not show a significant relationship with discharge dose (p> 0.05). The contamination level in each spot of the treatment ward showed no significant relationship with GFR, Tg, Tg-Tb, age, gender, and dosage (p>0.05 ). Conclusion: This study says that discharge of the dose in the patient's body is low in GFR higher and Dosage 150mCi under lower. There was no case of contamination of the treatment ward, depending on the dose and renal association. This suggests that patients' lifestyles or be affected by a variety of other factors.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.347-353
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• 2022

In this study, the radiation dose rate was measured by time and distance and evaluated whether radiation dose rate was suitable for domestic and international discharge criteria. In addition, the radiation dose emitted from the patient was measured with a glass dosimeter to evaluate the exposure dose if the caregiver stays in the isolated ward by placing a humanoid phantom instead of the caregiver at a distance of 1 m from the patient, on the second day of treatment. After 23 hours of isolation, the radiation dose rates at a distance of 1 m were 20.54 ± 6.21 µSv/h at 2.96 GBq administration and 27.94 ± 12.33 µSv/h at 3.70 GBq administration. The radiation dose rates at a distance of 1 m were 25.90 ± 2.21 µSv/h when 2.96 GBq was administered and 34.22 ± 10.06 µSv/h when 3.70 GBq was administered after 18 hours of isolation. However, if the isolation period is short may cause unnecessary radiation exposure to the third person. The reading of the attached dosimeter from the morning of the second day of treatment until removal was 0.01 to 0.95 mSv, which is a surface dose determined by the International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements. And the depth dose was 0.01 to 0.99 mSv. On the second day of treatment, even if the patient caregivers stayed in the isolation ward, the exposure dose of the patient family did not exceed the effective dose limit of 5 mSv recommended by the ICRP and NCRP.