Vaskulárna medicína 1/2015

Radiation load of health workers’ eye lenses in interventional radiology

Epidemiological studies on health effects of ionizing radiation concluded that radiosensitivity of eye lenses is higher than until now expected. As the consequence the International Commission on Radiological Protection recommended to lower the current limit of the equivalent dose for eye lenses from 150 mSv/year to 20 mSv/year. Because the most cases of radiation cataracts have been observed among the interventional radiologists and cardiologists, the actual attention of radiation protection is focused on the identification of high dose fluoroscopic areas in interventional radiology departments. The assessment of eye lens doses during interventional procedures, where potentially could be exceeded the new limit of doses was demonstrated in the pilot results of measurements in a group of Slovak interventional radiologists. The publication gives a survey of the possibilities for monitoring and optimisation tools for the reduction of the radiation risk of the medical staff.

Keywords: eye lens doses, radiation cataract, monitoring of the radiation load, interventional radiologists.