Peripheral Doses and Shielding

A pregnant Hodgkins patient was referred to our clinic for radiotherapy treatment. Leon C. Myrianthopoulos, Ph.D. coordinated the effort to design and construct a novel, easily maneuverable, non-motorized structure that supported the shielding material necessary to reduce the dose to the fetus to acceptable levels. He then carried out measurements in a phantom to determine the effectiveness of the shielding, as well as in-vivo measurements from which the dose to the fetus could be inferred. The results were presented in August 1998 at the AAPM annual meeting. In the meantime, a healthy baby had been born.

Reference: A Novel Shielding Device for Pregnant Hodgkin's Patients, L. Myrianthopoulos, H. Sutton, C. Reft, G. Chen, Medical Physics 25, A165, 1998. (Abstract)