# How to calculate exposure from RAI doses?



## pelyte (Apr 28, 2016)

I am searching for information how to calculate the exposure (sievers) of body from the dose used in RAI (Becquerel or Curie) treatment. Actually, I do not understand, why there is a huge amount of information about the possible exposure to family members, co-workers, etc, but there is no data, which doses of ionizing radiation the patient receives itself. I know that it is a difficult to answer question, but somewhere the answer should be.


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## joplin1975 (Jul 21, 2011)

I'm not sure I understand your question?

I can't tell you that, over one's life time, one cannot have anymore than 600mCi of RAI.


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## pelyte (Apr 28, 2016)

Mci is a unit of radioactivity itself. To measure the exposure (doze) of ionizing radiation, usually sievert (mili sievert) is used. I am interested how much mSv is received during the RAI treatment, because for other medical procedures, like CT scan, the exposure is given everywhere in sieverts (2mSv for head CT, etc.).


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## WhatHappened (Nov 12, 2015)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10807387

I think is what you are looking for.


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## pelyte (Apr 28, 2016)

The article mentioned above by WhatHappened is interesting. I also found a radiation protection document from European commission https://ec.europa.eu/energy/sites/ener/files/documents/097_en.pdf

I have asked my friend from the Institute of Physics to do a calculation. The answer is: 1850MBq (50mCi) equals to 10-30mSv. Of course, it is unofficial data.


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## WhatHappened (Nov 12, 2015)

Thanks for sharing back. That is a thorough document and takes the research and presents it in more understandable and practical terms.


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