Study on the Assessment Method of Occupational Radiation Dose to Interventional Radiology Staff Wearing Two Personal Dosimeters in China for the Period 2015-2021.

Abstract: Considering workers in interventional radiology occupationally exposed to relatively higher radiation dose, it is imperative to reasonably and reliably assess the occupational exposure of these workers. This paper presents a method to evaluate the occupational exposure to the interventional radiology workers monitored by using two personal dosimeters, based on data from 115,997 workers collected by the Chinese Registry of Radiation Workers in China during the period 2015-2021. It was observed that only 17.7% (20,572 in 115,997) of interventional radiology staff had a meaningful measurable result. The scatter plot of Hp (10) over - Hp (10) under vs. Hp (10) over was obtained to classify between the proper use group and misuse group. In addition, it was found that the effective dose calculated using the single-dosimeter approach proposed by Martin and Magee was close to those obtained using two other double-dosimeter approaches. Furthermore, the Swiss ordinance algorithm was chosen to assess the occupational exposure as a conservative estimation method. Meanwhile, it was also found that the average annual effective dose in tertiary hospitals is significantly higher than that in secondary hospitals in China ( Z = -2.491, p < 0.05/3 = 0.017). Based on these observations, rigorous surveillance, quality control measures, and better workload management are still necessary to correctly evaluate the occupational exposure of interventional radiology staff. Our results are expected to provide a feasible and accurate method for the evaluation of occupational radiation dose to interventional radiology staff wearing two personal dosimeters and contribute to effective prevention and control of radiation health risks.