Apichaya Techaphan. Production and evaluation of a reference standard charcoal cartridge for airborne radioiodine monitoring in nuclear medicine. Master's Degree(Medical Physics). Mahidol University. Mahidol University Library and Knowledge Center. : Mahidol University, 2019.
Production and evaluation of a reference standard charcoal cartridge for airborne radioiodine monitoring in nuclear medicine
Abstract:
Radioiodine-131 (131I) in the form of sodium iodide ( NaI) is the common therapeutic radiopharmaceutical used for thyroid diseases. However, it is volatile, also called "airborne radioiodine" which can cause the potentially internal exposure to the radiation worker via the inhalation process. In nuclear medicine, the gaseous iodine is the major component of airborne radioiodine contamination. Therefore, the gaseous airborne radioiodine monitoring is required for the radiation safety of the radiation worker. This monitoring involves the sampling of gaseous airborne radioiodine with the adsorption media using either the activated charcoal or the silver zeolite cartridge. After the air sampling, the radioiodine activity is determined by measuring the sample cartridge with a radiation detector. In order to obtain the accurate radioiodine activity, the radiation detector is needed to calibrate using the standard cartridge. Practically, the standard cartridge is used to establish the efficiency calibration curve, then, the counting efficiency is interpolated for the other radionuclides of which the energies are not existing in the standard cartridge. However, the commercial standard cartridge is unavailable in all institutes due to its high cost. Hence, the aims of this study were to produce and evaluate the reference standard charcoal cartridge, and to determine the correction factor for the counting efficiency of NaI(Tl) scintillation detector. In this study, the reference standard charcoal cartridges were fabricated in 4 patterns different in the standardized NaI distribution. Then, each cartridge was determined for the counting efficiency by measuring with the HPGe detector. The cartridge giving the maximum counting efficiency of the HPGe detector was selected for measuring with the NaI(Tl) scintillation detector. The maximum counting efficiency showed the pattern in which the NaI is located at the center of the cartridge. Using a practical method, the counting efficiency of the commercial 152Eu standard charcoal cartridge was determined by measuring with the HPGe detector, then, the counting efficiency at 364.48 keV was interpolated from the efficiency calibration curve. The interpolated counting efficiency at 364. 48 keV was 2. 96% . For the measurement of the selected reference standard charcoal cartridge with the NaI(Tl) scintillation detector, the counting efficiency of 131I at 364.48 keV was determined. Due to the poor resolution of the scintillation detector, this study attempted to evaluate 3 methods for spectral analysis: (a) FWHM, (b) full 364.48-keV peak and (c) sum 284.29-keV and 364.48-keV peaks method. Based on the results, the counting efficiencies were 4.42 ± 0.30%, 21.14 ± 0.70% and 23.36 ± 0. 75% , respectively. To trace our work to the practical method, the correction factor was determined by dividing the counting efficiency of 131I at 364.48 keV between from the NaI(Tl) scintillation detector for the reference standard charcoal cartridge by from the HPGe detector for the commercial 152Eu standard charcoal cartridge. The correction factors were calculated with the results as 0.670 ± 0.045, 0.140 ± 0.005 and 0.127 ± 0.004 for each spectrum analysis method. In conclusion, the reference standard charcoal cartridge could be fabricated and used for radiation detector calibration together with the correction factor.