Radiation monitoring in a clinical PET facility

From the beginning of the clinical positron emission tomography (PET) program at the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, special attention has been given to potential radiation exposure of personnel. A comprehensive, ongoing evaluation of monitoring and safety has evolved. The current staff includes a radiochemist, a pharmacist, a medical physicist, and two nuclear medicine technologists. Using appropriate devices and instrumentation, total exposure and exposure rates have been documented for all routine aspects of clinical PET. Staff activities addressed in their survey include cyclotron operation, radiopharmaceutical production and quality control, performance of transmission scanning, administration of doses to patients, and attendance of patients during emission scanning