A lightweight 0.25 mm lead equivalence protective apron for shielding radiological technologists from radiation exposure during single-photon emission computed tomography in nuclear medicine

Radiological technologists in nuclear medicine departments (NMRTs) are exposed to higher radiation doses than other nuclear medicine staff. Consequently, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency recommends using a 0.5-mm lead equivalence protective apron (PA) for staff with radiation exposure > 800 MBq of 99mTc. However, 0.5 mm PA is heavy and cumbersome to use. We evaluated the effectiveness of a 0.25 mm lead equivalence lightweight protective apron (L-PA) for NMRT radiation exposure during daily nuclear medicine procedures. The work was performed both with a phantom and in a real situation in our study. The phantom study was conducted with five radioisotopes (RI) placed 0.5 m from the human phantom with and without L-PA. In the clinical study, NMRT recorded the radiation dose for 20 days inside and outside the L-PA using clinical agents (140 examinations). In the phantom study, L-PA decreased the measured doses by 63% with 201Tl, 41% with 99mTc, 27% with 67Ga, 33% with 123I, and 10% with 131I. In the clinical study, L-PA reduced the average dose per day by 43%. Therefore, L-PA could have sufficient shielding ability for daily work, mainly using 99mTc, and could be recommended by considering PA weight.