Radiation shielding materials and radiation scatter effects for interventional radiology (IR) physicians

Purpose: To measure the attenuation effectiveness and minimize the weight of new non-Pb radiation shielding materials used for radiation protection by interventional radiology (IR) physicians, to compare the accuracy of the different standard measurement geometries of these materials, and to determi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Medical physics (Lancaster) 2012-07, Vol.39 (7), p.4537-4546
Main Authors: McCaffrey, J. P., Tessier, F., Shen, H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applications
barium compounds
bismuth compounds
broad beam
Equipment Design
Equipment Failure Analysis
gadolinium compounds
Humans
Infrared radiation
Infrared radiation scattering
ionizing radiation
Lead
Manufactured Materials
Materials properties
Materials Testing
Monte Carlo methods
occupational health
occupational safety
Ozone
Physicians
Radiation Injuries - prevention & control
Radiation monitoring, control, and safety
radiation protection
Radiation Protection - methods
radiation scatter
radiation shielding
Radiography, Interventional - instrumentation
Radiography, Interventional - methods
Scattering, Radiation
X‐ray scattering
X‐ray spectra
X‐rays
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Summary:Purpose: To measure the attenuation effectiveness and minimize the weight of new non-Pb radiation shielding materials used for radiation protection by interventional radiology (IR) physicians, to compare the accuracy of the different standard measurement geometries of these materials, and to determine x-ray qualities that correspond to the scattered radiation that IR physicians typically encounter. Methods: Radiation attenuation capabilities of non-Pb materials were investigated. Typically, most studies of non-Pb materials have focused on the attenuating properties of metal powders. In this study, layers of materials incorporating non-Pb powdered compounds such as Bi2O3, Gd2O3, and BaSO4 were measured individually, as bilayers, and as a Bi2O3-loaded hand cream. Attenuation measurements were performed in narrow-beam (fluorescence excluded) and broad beam (fluorescence included) geometries, demonstrating that these different geometries provided significantly different results. The Monte Carlo (MC) program EGSnrc was used to calculate the resulting spectra after attenuation by radiation shielding materials, and scattered x-ray spectra after 90° scattering of eight ASTM Standard primary x-ray beams. Surrogate x-ray qualities that corresponded to these scattered spectra were tabulated. Results: Radiation shielding materials incorporating Bi2O3 were found to provide equivalent or superior attenuation compared with commercial Pb-based and non-Pb materials across the 60–130 kVp energy range. Measurements were made for single layers of the Bi2O3 compound and for bilayers where the ordering was low atomic number (Z) layer closest to x-ray source/high Z (Bi2O3) layer farthest from the x-ray source. Narrow-beam Standard test methods which do not include the contribution from fluorescence overestimated the attenuating capabilities of Pb and non-Pb materials. Measurements of a newly developed, quick-drying, and easily removable Bi2O3-loaded hand cream demonstrated better attenuation capabilities than commercial Bi2O3-loaded gloves. Scattered radiation measurements and MC simulations illustrated that the spectra resulting from 90° scattering of primary x-ray beam qualities can be approximated by surrogate x-ray qualities which are more representative of the radiation actually encountered by IR physicians. A table of surrogate qualities of the eight ASTM F2547-06 Standard qualities was compiled. Conclusions: New non-Pb compound materials, particularly single layers or bil
ISSN:0094-2405
2473-4209
DOI:10.1118/1.4730504