OCCUPATIONAL EYE LENS DOSE ESTIMATED USING WHOLE-BODY DOSEMETER IN INTERVENTIONAL CARDIOLOGY AND RADIOLOGY: A MONTE CARLO STUDY.

Medical personnel performing interventional procedures in cardiology and radiology is considered to be a professional group exposed to high doses of ionizing radiation. Reduction of the eye lens dose limit made its assessment in the interventional procedures one of the most challenging topics. The objective of this work is to assess eye lens doses based on the whole-body doses using methods of computational dosimetry. Assessment included different C-arm orientations (PA, LAO and RAO), tube voltages (80 -110 kV) and efficiency of different combinations of protective equipment used in interventional procedures. Center position at the height of the thyroid gives best estimate of eye lens dose, with spreads of 11% (13%), 13% (17%) and 14% (13%) for the left (right) eye lens. The conversion factors of 1.03 (0.83), 1.28 (1.06) and 1.36 (1.06) to convert whole body to eye lens dose were derived for positions of first operator, nurse and radiographer, respectively. The eye lens dose reduction factors for different combinations of applied protective equipment are 178, 5 and 6, respectively.