A 5-y follow-up of the radiation exposure to in-room personnel during cardiac catheterization.

This study documents the radiation doses received by all in-room personnel of three cardiac catheterization laboratories where more than 15,000 cardiac procedures have been performed over a 5-y period. It is shown that all in-room personnel was exposed to a body dose equivalent well below any regulatory limits. However, some workers may have exceeded the occupational 150 mSv y-1 recommended limit for the lens of the eye. The physicians-in-training and the staff physicians are the two groups more likely to reach this limit. It is also demonstrated that a low correlation exists between the annual number of procedures and the annual head dose equivalent of a physician, but more variation is likely to originate from his/her working attitude and techniques. The mean dose equivalent at the collar level of the physicians is estimated to be 0.04 +/- 0.02 mSv per procedure.