Estimation of doses of ionizing radiation from patients treated with 131

In this paper authors deals with the problematic of estimation of doses of ionizing radiation from patients treated with iodine-131. In accordance with standards acting in Russia, discharge of a patient from a hospital depends on the dose rate measured at a distance of I m from the patient; the limit is 3 μSv/hour. That is why the patients must stay at clinics for 3-12 days on average. . From the experience of foreign clinics it is known that patients with diffuse toxic goiter do not need a long stay at radiological clinics if there is no special prescription. As a rule, the duration of stay of a patient with differentiated thyroid cancer is no longer than 5 days. The cohort under study consisted of more than 250 individuals ( each of subjects had several entries to the clinics), divided into 4 groups in relation to the disease ( diffuse toxic goiter and differentiated thyroid cancer) and the type of applied radionuclide therapy (ablation of remnant thyroid tissue, treatment for metastases to lung or bones). (authors)