Investigation And Evaluation Of Radiation Protection For Nuclear Medicine In Several Cities In Eastern China

Objective To describe the basic situation,radiological protection and supervisio n of nuclear medicine in several cities in eastern China,which in further helps us find the problems and provide corresponding suggestions.Methods 1.Questionnaires are designed to conduct a cross-sectional survey on the basic situation of nuclear medicine in different hospitals in 2006,and we guided the medical staff to fill the questionnaires and collect relative information.2.Seven indexes were extracted from the questionnaires,including Emergency and management system X1,Staff management X2,Protective measures X3,Ventilation and decoration X4,Radioactive waste disposal X5,Layout and partitioning X6 and Location X7.Furthermore,we graded and evaluated the radiological protection of nuclear medicine in different hospitals using TOPSIS and RSR methods.3.Epidata 3.0 software was used for data entry and SAS 9.2 software was used for statistical analysis.All analyses were performed using a two-sided test.The significant level of the test was defined as P<0.05.The comparison of continuous variables in multiple groups was performed using ANOVA method and multiple comparisons were performed using the LSD method.Results 1.A total of 38 medical institutions in nine provinces/municipalities such as Shandong Province,Jilin Province and Tianjin M unicipality were conducted the special investigation of nuclear medicine.2.All the hospitals under investigation had obtained licenses for medical institutions and permits for radiotherapy.The business carried out was based on PET imaging diagnosis,SPECT imaging diagnosis,radiopharmaceutical treatment and application therapy.3.Some hospitals had old equipment,and the proportions of SPEC T and PET used for more than 10 years were 23.1% and 40.5%,respectively.In addition,the detection rates of self-monitoring equipment were low in some hospitals,with a total of 56.0%.4.Most of the projects,such as site selection,layout,zoning,protective measures and radiological protection management,were carried out in accordance with national standards,but some hospitals had some problems.For example,41.0% of hospitals had problems in the layout of nuclear medicine,leading to the intersection of personnel channels and logistics channels.5.Due to the separation of the nuclear medicine and PET center fro m the site and administration of a hospital in Shandong province,39 subjects were evaluated for radiological protection of nuclear medicine in our study.6.It was divided into four levels according to the scores of surveyed subjects,namely,superior,good,medium and poor groups.The superior group included 7 hospitals,the good group included 13 hospitals,the medium group included 13 hospitals and the poor group included 6 hospitals.7.The main aspects affecting the scores and grouping the 39 objects were: Layout and partitioning X6,Emergency and management system X1 and Protective measures X3,which were key aspects for future supervision and inspection.Conclusions With the expansion of equipment and projects,problems exist though.Some equipment were old and lack of verification while some institutions did not carry out self-monitoring.In addition,the problems of workplace layout,partitioning and location need to be strengthened from the source,and we should pay more attention to such issues and propose corresponding solutions in the future.