Clinical InvestigationInterventional CardiologyCancer risk from professional exposure in staff working in cardiac catheterization laboratory: Insights from the National Research Council's Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation VII Report
Section snippets
Selection of subjects
We initially considered all health professionals included in 2006 in the Tuscany Region dosimetric data bank, collected in the Health Physics Departments of Pisa and Florence and composed of >50 hospitals, including 11 high volume cardiac catheterization laboratories. From this initial set of 5,164 workers, we selected cardiac catheterization laboratory staff (interventional cardiologists, cardiac electrophysiologists, interventional radiologists, nurses, technicians) and analyzed the yearly
Results
For the total population of 5,164 workers, we assessed the yearly exposure as distributed throughout the medical specialties. Cardiac catheterization laboratory workers represented 67% of workers with yearly exposure >6 mSv and 31% of those with exposure >1 mSv (Figure 1). When the full population of cardiac catheterization laboratory personnel is considered, the exposure levels are relatively low and comparable with those of other specialties with radiation exposure (Figure 2). The 2006 dose
Discussion
In contemporary medical practice, catheterization laboratory workers comprised most of those with high levels of exposure. For the most experienced (and most exposed) staff working in the cardiac catheterization laboratory, with a range of exposures in between 2 and 5 mSv per year, a typical cumulative 15-year radiological exposure around the equivalent of 50 mSv is associated with a nonnegligible LAR of cancer in the order of magnitude of 1 cancer in 200 exposed subjects. This applies,
Conclusions
The number of interventional radiological (and especially cardiological) procedures has been increasing during the last years. The number of involved professionals (cardiologists, nurses, and technicians) is also substantially increasing. The highest doses to staff (and to patients) are usually recorded in these laboratories. With current staff exposure levels, professional risk cannot be considered negligible, for the most exposed personnel workers in the cardiac catheterization laboratories,
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The study was endorsed and partially funded by ANMCO and is a part (IntercardioRisiko subproject) of the IntercardioReproStudy.