• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.259-279
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• 2009

Radioiodine ablation therapy has been considered to be a standard treatment for patient with differentiated thyroid cancer after total thyroidectomy. Patients may need to be hospitalized to reduce radiation exposure of other people and relatives from radioactive patients receiving radioiodine therapy. Medical staffs, nursing staffs and technologists sometimes hesitate to contact patients in radioiodine therapy ward. The purpose of this paper is to introduce radiation dosimetry, estimate radiation dose from patients and emphasize the safety of radiation exposure from patients treated with high dose radioiodine in therapy ward. The major component of radiation dose from patient is external exposure. However external radiation dose from these patients treated with typical therapeutic dose of 4 to 8 GBq have a very low risk of cancer induction compared with other various risks occurring in daily life. The typical annual radiation dose without shielding received by patient is estimated to be 5 to 10 mSv, which is comparable with 100 to 200 times effective dose received by chest PA examination. Therefore, when we should keep in mind the general principle of radiation protection, the risks of radiation exposure from patients are low and the medical personnel are considered to be safe from radiation exposure.

• Journal of Korea Society of Digital Industry and Information Management
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.41-48
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• 2014

This paper provides the design of system software for the management of radiation dose that is generated by using computerized tomography(CT). Recently, the radiation leakage incident of Japanese nuclear power plant was in the news internationally and there is a growing interest not only in nuclear power plant but in medical radiation exposure. In spite of the fact that currently safety management of radiation is under control only the workers of the radiation involved, now the exposure management of patients have been required. As surgery and inspections using the radiation have increased, this medical radiation exposure is increasing too. But it is a real situation that medical institutions don't know the level of radiation exposure applied to the patient. Therefore, a system for managing the radiation exposure of a patient from the medical institution is required. This paper proposes a design of a software program that manages the radiation exposure of CT which is a typical imaging tool to use the radiation in the medical institution. By check the amount of radiation dose and set the limit of dose, we would be of help to optimize the medical exposure of the patient.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.109-115
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• 2015

In case of a CT examinations, there is a difference in the distribution of radiation dose from that of general X-ray equipments, and it has been known to cause a great radiation exposure during the examinations. However, owing to its high reliability on the accuracy of a examinations result, its use has increased continuously. In consideration of such a circumstance, the CT equipment, radiation dose during CT examinations, diagnostic reference level, and solutions to reduce radiation dose were mentioned on the basis of previously reported data.

• Journal of the Korean Physical Society
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• v.73 no.10
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• pp.1571-1576
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• 2018

We developed and evaluated an algorithm to calculate the target radiation dose in cancer patients by measuring the transmitted dose during 3D conformal radiation treatment (3D-CRT) treatment. The patient target doses were calculated from the transit dose, which was measured using a glass dosimeter positioned 150 cm from the source. The accuracy of the transit dose algorithm was evaluated using a solid water phantom for five patient treatment plans. We performed transit dose-based patient dose verification during the actual treatment of 34 patients who underwent 3D-CRT. These included 17 patients with breast cancer, 11 with pelvic cancer, and 6 with other cancers. In the solid water phantom study, the difference between the transit dosimetry algorithm with the treatment planning system (TPS) and the measurement was $-0.10{\pm}1.93%$. In the clinical study, this difference was $0.94{\pm}4.13%$ for the patients with 17 breast cancers, $-0.11{\pm}3.50%$ for the eight with rectal cancer, $0.51{\pm}5.10%$ for the four with bone cancer, and $0.91{\pm}3.69%$ for the other five. These results suggest that transit-dosimetry-based in-room patient dose verification is a useful application for 3D-CRT. We expect that this technique will be widely applicable for patient safety in the treatment room through improvements in the transit dosimetry algorithm for complicated treatment techniques (including intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) or volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT).

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.103-107
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• 2012

This paper analyzes changes in the external radiation dose rate of PET-CT test patients as a part of providing basic materials for reduction of radiation exposure to PET-CT test patients. In theory the measurement of external radiation dose rate of PET-CT test patients shows that the further the distance from the patient injected with radioactive pharmaceutical and a longer time elapsement from the injection leads to a smaller amount of radiation. Particularly, the amount of radiation marked the highest in the chest was at 4.17 minutes immediately after the intravenous injection and in the head after 77.47 minutes after urination in advance to the PET-CT test. As in the generalized information, it is desired to keep distance between the patient and caretakers or professionals to reduce the amount of radiation exposure from PET-CT test patients and to resume contact the patient after the time when the radiation has reduced. If contact is unavoidable, it is desired to keep at least 200cm from the patient. In addition, the amount of radiation reached the highest in the chest at first and then in the head from 77 minutes after injection. Accordingly, it would be helpful in achieving the optimization if contact is made based on the patient's physical characteristics. This study is significant as it measures changes in radiation the dose rate by; distance from the PET-CT test patient, time elapsed, and specific parts of body. Further studies based on the findings in this paper are required to analyze changes in radiation dose rate in accordance with individual characteristics unique to PET-CT patients and to utilize the results to reduce the amount of radiation patient, caretakers and professions are exposed.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.26-30
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• 1998

We tried to study in order to furnish the data for medical exposure dose and scattered ray in radiography. As the tables(from 1 to 3) show, we can presume, by means of a concrete numerical value, the amount of results affected by patient radiation exposure dose and somatic effect in radiography. However, there are many difficulties in the difference of exposure factor in each hospital, the accuracy of measuring by tracebility, shortage of exposure dose data especially in the area of children, and portable radiography, etc. In the radiation examination, it is considered if the gained benefit to the patient due to radiation is more than the risk of radiation, then the medical exposure is thought to be justified. Therefore, the radiotechnologists should continually make an effort to develop and study new techniques so as to reduce patient exposure dose.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.156-160
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• 2019

Background: To compare the dose of radiation received by the fetus in a pregnant patient irradiated for head and neck cancer using helical tomotherapy and three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3DCRT). Materials and Methods: The patient was modeled with a humanoid phantom to mimic a gestation of 26 weeks. Radiotherapy with a total dose of 2 Gy was delivered with both tomotherapy (2.5 and 5.0 cm jaw size) and 3DCRT. The position of the fetus was predicted to be 45 cm from the field edge at the time of treatment. The delivered dose was measured according to the distance from the field edge and the fetus. Results and Discussion: The accumulated dose to the fetus was 1.6 cGy by 3DCRT and 2 and 2.3 cGy by the 2.5 and 5 cm jaw tomotherapy plans. For tomotherapy, the fetal dose with the 2.5 cm jaw was lower than that with the 5 cm jaw, although the radiation leakage was greater for 2.5 cm jaw plan due to the 1.5 fold longer beam-on time. At the uterine fundus, tomotherapy with a 5 cm jaw delivered the highest dose of 2.4 cGy. When the fetus moves up to 35 cm at the 29th week of gestation, the resultant fetal doses for 3DCRT and tomotherapy with 2.5 and 5 cm jaws were estimated as 2.1, 2.7, and 3.9 cGy, respectively. Conclusion: For tomotherapy, scattering radiation was more important due to the high monitor unit values. Therefore, selecting a smaller jaw size for tomotherapy may reduce the fetal dose. however, evaluation of risk should be individually performed for each patient.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2006.08a
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• pp.71-71
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• 2006

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.33-38
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• 2017

Creating individualized build-up material for superficial photon beam radiation therapy at irregular surface is complex with rice or commonly used flat shape bolus. In this study, we implemented a workflow using 3D printed patient specific bolus and describe our clinical experience. To provide better fitted build-up to irregular surface, the 3D printing technique was used. The PolyLactic Acid (PLA) which processed with nontoxic plant component was used for 3D printer filament material for clinical usage. The 3D printed bolus was designed using virtual bolus structure delineated on patient CT images. Dose distributions were generated from treatment plan for bolus assigned uniform relative electron density and bolus using relative electron density from CT image and compared to evaluate the inhomogeneity effect of bolus material. Pretreatment QA is performed to verify the relative electron density applied to bolus structure by gamma analysis. As an in-vivo dosimetry, Optically Stimulated Luminescent Dosimeters (OSLD) are used to measure the skin dose. The plan comparison result shows that discrepancies between the virtual bolus plan and printed bolus plan are negligible. (0.3% maximum dose difference and 0.2% mean dose difference). The dose distribution is evaluated with gamma method (2%, 2 mm) at the center of GTV and the passing rate was 99.6%. The OSLD measurement shows 0.3% to 2.1% higher than expected dose at patient treatment lesion. In this study, we treated Mycosis fungoides patient with patient specific bolus using 3D printing technique. The accuracy of treatment plan was verified by pretreatment QA and in-vivo dosimetry. The QA results and 4 month follow up result shows the radiation treatment using 3D printing bolus is feasible to treat irregular patient skin.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.157-165
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• 2013

To determine the factors affecting the external radiation dose rates of patients undergoing PET-MRI examinations and to assess the trends of these differences, we measured the changes in the dose rates of $^{18}F$-FDG during a set period of time for each body region. Consistent with theoretical predictions, the dose rate decreased over time in patients undergoing PET-MRI examinations. Furthermore, immediately after the $^{18}F$-FDG injection, the dose rate in the chest region was the highest, followed by the abdominal region, the head region, and the foot region. The dose rate decreased drastically as time passed, by 2.47-fold, from $339.23{\pm}74.70mSv\;h^{-1}$ ($6.73{\pm}5.79$ min) at the time point immediately after the $^{18}F$-FDG injection to $102.71{\pm}26.17mSv\;h^{-1}$ ($136.11{\pm}25.64$ min) after the examination. In the foot region, there were no significant changes over time, from $32.05{\pm}20.23mSv\;h^{-1}$ ($6.73{\pm}5.79$ min) at the time point immediately after the $^{18}F$-FDG injection, to $23.89{\pm}9.14mSv\;h^{-1}$ ($136.11{\pm}25.64$ min) after the examination. The dose rate is dependent on the individual characteristics of the patient, and differed depending on the body region and time point. However, the dose rates were higher in patients who had a lower body weight, shorter stature, fewer urinations, lower fluid intake, and history of diabetes mellitus. To decrease radiation exposure, it is difficult or impossible to change factors inherent to the patient, such as sex, age, height, body weight, obesity, and history of diabetes mellitus. However, factors which can be changed, such as the $^{18}F$-FDG dose, fasting time, fluid intake, number of urinations, and contrast agent dose can be controlled to minimize the external radiation exposure of the patient.