title: A reevaluation of the procedures used to perform thyroid bioassay on nuclear medicine personnel following radioiodine handling procedures.
abstract: A routinely used thyroid uptake counter in Nuclear Medicine is evaluated to determine if its sensitivity is sufficient to perform routine thyroid bioassays on Nuclear Medicine personnel involved in handling and administering radioactive iodine. The BiodexAtomlab 950 (PC) Medical Spectrometer thyroid uptake counter system is found to be sensitive to 0.48 kBq (0.013 μCi) for ¹³¹I, which is 31% of the regulatory limit of 0.04 μCi. A computer program is developed that allows the Nuclear Medicine staff to perform their own thyroid counts with results automatically available to the Health Physics Lab via computer.
authors.affiliation: Penn State Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, PA 17033, USA. blorah@hmc.psu.edu
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lorah
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: King
authors.forename: Bryan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Achey
mesh_terms: D001681:Biological Assay / Q000592:standards*; D001692:Biological Transport; D006282:Health Personnel; D007457:Iodine Radioisotopes / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000378:metabolism; D009683:Nuclear Medicine / Q000592:standards*; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000032:analysis / Q000592:standards*; D013961:Thyroid Gland / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D007457:Iodine Radioisotopes