Monitoring of patients after high dose radioiodine therapy in DTC: to assess the impact of enhanced radiation level discharge limits from isolation ward currently enforce by regulatory authority (AERB) Govt. of India

The objective of this study was to compare the duration of stay of patients in Hospital under current and old criteria of discharge limits fixed by AERB, Govt. of India, Mumbai and assess the throughput of patient with revised criteria (AERB Safety Code: AERB/RF-MED/SC-2 (Rev. 2), Nuclear Medicine Facilities, 2011) for discharge of patients from Isolation ward. Also simultaneously we tried to evaluate and find the radiation level at different distances from the patient immediately and at regular interval till they released from hospital after oral administration of therapeutic activity of Iodine-131 from the abdomen level with the help of calibrated radiation survey meter. We retrospectively analyzed the external exposure rate in Sixty (60) cases. Thyroid monitoring for radioiodine is one of the best examples that directly determine the quantity of a radioactivity in an organ / body. A relation exists between the amount of activity administered and the dose rate at a given distance from the patient. However dose rate also depends upon the body built of the patient. The dose rate will be more for a given administered activity for thin patients than obese patients due to attenuation by abdominal wall. The safety guideline are however same for these patients. Results and After enforcement of current enhanced radiation level discharge limits of Isolation ward patient throughput has increased and we can simply admit more no. of patients in Isolation ward for High Dose Radioiodine therapy. However in few patients with low socioeconomic background, we still discharge according to older limit. (author)