A new method for calculating structural radiation protection in nuclear medical imaging

Stefan Schwan, Arbia Khezami, Janina Hohnholz, Christoph Lerche and N. Jon Shah

3rd July 2022

Scientists from INM-4 have developed a software tool to provide the calculation routines for structural radiation protection from positron and gamma emitters used in nuclear medical imaging, for example, in PET measurements using 18F.

The aim of the project was to establish an accurate way along the technical standard to calculate the local dose in the vicinity of a radioactive source and to present the calculated results in an intuitive way to support the engineering of the structural measures necessary to meet regulatory guidelines.

The proposed software, termed RadSoft, was successfully used to develop the structural radiation protection of a controlled area for hybrid MR-PET imaging, with a focus on the requirements for PET.

A new method for calculating structural radiation protection in nuclear medical imaging
Top left: Dataset for simulation: Sources S1 and S2 of 250 MBq, lead shields with an exemplary thickness of 5 mm are displayed as red lines. The yellow lines represent the walls of the room and their attenuation is not considered in the calculation. The blue boxes define workspaces with a given residence time. The software returns values for the local annual dose and local dose rate for marker positions M1–M6. Figure right: Contour plot of the local annual dose of a controlled area for MR-PET and PET investigations, the radiation from the source within its own space is not considered. Bottom left: Contour plot of the local dose rate: Source S1 of 250 MBq, lead shields with a thickness of 5 mm, the radiation from the source within its own space is not considered.

Original publication: A software-based approach for calculating spatially resolved radiation exposure for structural radiation protection in nuclear medical imaging

Last Modified: 08.08.2022