The lens exposure of the nurse engaged in cardiovascular IVR —The dose difference by the position of the dosimeter—

Abstract

 The purpose of this study was to examine the occupational exposure of the eye lens for nurses engaged in cardiovascular interventional radiology (IVR) and to determine the proper position to wear the eye dosimeter. Two types of cardiovascular IVR were investigated for 12 nurses : percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and catheter ablation (ABL). In PCI, the doses measured at the left eye side, right eye side, and the center of the forehead were almost same. However, in ABL, there was a tendency that the nurses received higher radiation doses at the eye side closer to the patients compared with the contralateral eye side and the center of the forehead. In addition, the eye doses in PCI tended to be highly correlated with patient dose parameters. This result may suggest that it is possible to estimate the eye dose without using a dosimeter, but it is necessary to actually measure the dose of the eye closer to the patient using the dosimeter.