Radiation dose to nuclear medicine technologists when operating PET/MR compared with PET/CT

Since 2010, positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance (PET/MR) has been increasingly used as clinical routine in nuclear medicine departments. One advantage of PET/MR over PET/computed tomography (CT) is the lower dose of ionising radiation delivered to patients. However, data on the radiation dose delivered to staff operating PET/MR compared with the new generation of PET/CT equipment are still lacking. Our aim was to compare the radiation dose to nuclear medicine technologists performing routine PET/MR and PET/CT in the same department. We retrospectively measured the daily radiation dose received by PET technologists over 13 months by collecting individual dosimetry measurements (from electronic personal dosimeters). Data were analysed taking into account the total number of studies performed with each PET modality (PET/MR with Signa 3T, General Electric Healthcare versus PET/CT with Biograph mCT flow, Siemens), the type of exploration (brain versus whole-body PET), the F-18 activity injected per day and per patient as well as the time spent in contact with patients after tracer injection. Our results show a significantly higher whole-body exposure to technologists for PET/MR compared with PET/CT (10.3 +/- 3.5 nSv versus 4.7 +/- 1.2 nSv per F-18 injected MBq, respectively; p < 0.05). This difference was related to prolonged contact with injected patients during patient positioning with the PET/MR device and MR coil placement, especially in whole-body studies. For an equal injected activity, radiation exposure to PET technologists for PET/MR was twice that of PET/CT. To minimise the radiation dose to staff, efforts should be made to optimise patient positioning, even in departments with extensive PET/CT experience.