SOME ASPECTS OF RADIATION PROTECTION IN NUCLEAR MEDICINE DEPARTMENTS

Nuclear medicine is a medical specialty that uses radioactive substances or radiopharmaceuticals combined with imaging techniques to diagnose and treat various diseases or injuries. In diagnostic applications, nuclear imaging allows physicians to study bodily functions while they are taking place. In therapeutic applications, high radiation doses are used to destroy diseased tissues. The aim of this paper is to emphasize the very important aspects regarding the radiation protection that have to be consider and apply when it is designing a new nuclear medicine department and/or daily work in it. In our country today, several specialized units, known as nuclear medicine clinics, operate using radioactive isotopes and nuclear radiation either in vivo or in vitro for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. The prospects for the use of nuclear methods in medicine are clear and optimistic for the future. Although some physicians practice nuclear medicine as a full specialty, others working in radiology, pathology, and internal medicine use aspects of nuclear medicine in their daily work. At its most basic level, nuclear imaging examines chemical reactions occurring within the human body. To produce an image, a radioactive substance is administered orally or by injection. During this work has to be specified minimum standards of safe design, responsibility of personnel in the department, how to achieve optimization of medical exposure and minimize the worker and public exposure, deal with radiation sources and waste management, how to prevent accident and deal with it if happened.