Assessment of Occupational Radiation Exposure for Radiotherapy Healthcare Workers at Kenyatta National Hospital Using Thermoluminescence Dosimeter LiF:Mg,Ti

Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) is the largest public referral hospital with a comprehensive cancer treatment facility in East and Central Africa. Occupational radiation monitoring is a significant technique for demonstrating compliance of radiation regulatory limits. The objective of the study was to carry out assessment of occupational radiation exposure among radiotherapy personnel at KNH using thermoluminescence dosimeter, TLD. KNH staff were monitored using dosimeter type TLD-100 made of LiF:Mg,Ti, on monthly basis. The reader system used for analysis was Harshaw 8800. The measurement established the average monthly accumulated occupational personnel dose for KNH to be 0.21 mSv and 0.29 mSv for Hp (10) and Hp (0.07) respectively. The accumulated dose results were within the maximum acceptable dose of 1.67 mSv/month and 41.6 mSv/month for Hp (10) and Hp (0.07) respectively. The investigation results were higher than the acceptable public limit of 0.08 mSv/month. Moreover, incidences were noted where the fetus dose limit 0.42 was also exceeded. Evaluation of statistical dose exposure among doctors, nurses and radiographers’ measurement results were within ±0.02 mSv. The study established the average KNH occupational radiation exposure levels for both Hp (10) and Hp (0.07) were within the ICRU recommendation, validating radiation protection safe practice. Data analysis of healthcare workers did not indicate exposure trend biased to any healthcare profession. Hence radiation risk cut across all professional categories. It is recommended that Radiation Monitoring program be reviewed to include non-clinical staff who access the facility. Radiation reporting should not be limited to one facility, but reflect cases where workers are involved in multiple multiple jobs.

Intercomparison of Environmental Gamma doses Measured with A NaI(Tl) Survey Meter and Thermoluminescent Dosimeters(TLDs) in the Poonch Division of Azad Kashmir, Pakistan

This study presents the intercomparison of the outdoor environmental gamma dose rates measured using a Nal （TI） based survey meter along with thermoluminescent dosimeters （TLDs） and estimation of excess lifetime cancer risk （ELCR）, for the inhabitants of Poonch division of the Azad Kashmir, Pakistan. CaF2： Dy （TLD-200） card dosimeters were installed at height of 1 m from ground at fifteen different locations covering the entire Poonch division comprising of three districts.

IMPROVEMENT IN PREPARATION OF LiF TLD AND OPTIMIZATION OF MEASUREMENT PARAMETERS

The technological process for prepaxation of LiF TLD is reported. Sixteen types of TLD of LiF:Mg,Ti and LiF:Mg,Cu,P series are produced for dosimetry of X, γradiations and in neutron-γmixed radiation field. The measurement parameters have been optimizationally selected by factors of parameter evaluation (P) and orthogonal method, and the procedure of quality control is recommended.

The impact of intensity modulated radiotherapy on the skin dose for deep seated tumors

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) on surface doses for brain, abdomen and pelvis deep located tumors treated with 6 MV photon and to evaluate the skin dose calculation accuracy of the XIO 4.04 treatment planning system. Methods: More investigations for the influences of IMRT on skin doses would increase its applications for many treatment sites. Measuring skin doses in real treatment situations would reduce the uncertainty of skin dose prediction. In this work a pediatric human phantom was covered by a layer of 1 mm bolus at three treatment sites and thermoluminescent dosimeter (TLD) chips were inserted into the bolus at each treatment site before CT scan. Two different treatment plans [three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3DCRT) and IMRT] for each treatment sites were performed on XIO 4.04 treatment planning system using superposition algorism. Results: The results showed that the surface doses for 3DCRT were higher than the surface doses in IMRT by 1.6%, 2.5% and 3.2% for brain, abdomen and pelvis sites respectively. There was good agreement between measured and calculated surface doses, where the calculated surface dose was 15.5% for brain tumor calculated with 3DCRT whereas the measured surface dose was 12.1%. For abdomen site the calculated surface dose for IMRT treatment plan was 16.5% whereas the measured surface dose was 12.6%. Conclusion: The skin dose in IMRT for deep seated tumors is lower than that in 3DCRT which is another advantage for the IMRT. The TLD readings showed that the difference between the calculated and measured point dose is negligible. The superposition calculation algorism of the XIO 4.04 treatment planning system modeled the superficial dose well.