Exposure to low-doses of ionising radiation can induce biological effects in healthcare professionals, such as DNA damage, genotoxic effects, lens opacities, and risk of cancer. This systematic review aims to assess the current status and identify the health impacts of occupational exposure to ionising radiation.
This review presents three studies assessing the cancer risk in medical staff [4, 22, 25]. Rajaraman et al reported an elevated risk of certain cancers (brain cancer, melanoma, and breast cancer) among radiographers in the USA who conduct FGIP [4]. According to this study, cancer risks were assessed using Cox proportional hazards models to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% CIs for radiographers who had ever performed or assisted with fluoroscopically guided interventional procedures, compared to those who had never worked with these procedures. In the models, age was treated as the timescale [4]. In the same study, there was a nearly two-fold increase in the risk of mortality from brain cancer (HR, 2.55; 95% CI, 1.48–4.40) [4].
Breast tissue is highly susceptible to the carcinogenic effects of radiation, particularly in younger individuals. Numerous epidemiological studies have consistently indicated heightened risks of breast cancer due to exposure to ionising radiation [61–63].
The Andreassi et al study did not reveal a statistically significant increase in the prevalence of cardiovascular events in cardiac catheterization laboratory workers. Nevertheless, there was a higher occurrence of vascular risk factors, such as hypertension and hypercholesterolemia [22].
Due to the correlation between exposure to ionising radiation and cancer risk, staff are becoming increasingly aware of the potentially harmful effects of ionising radiation during procedures [25]. The BEIR VII report to estimate the lifetime attributable risk of all cancer incidence and mortality [64]. According to BEIR VII report, continuous exposure to 10 mSv annually from ages 18–65 results in a cancer incidence of 3059 for males and 4295 for females per 100 000 persons exposed. This data has been directly applied in many studies to calculate the cancer risk for medical staff [25, 65, 66].
As reported by Fang et al [29] the findings of this research highlighted the potential consequences of prolonged, low-level occupational exposure to ionising radiation among medical staff in the Shandong area of China, leading to genomic instability. Ionising radiation is a powerful genotoxic substance and a known human carcinogen, causing cellular harm and leading to various lasting effects such as genomic instability and carcinogenesis [67].
Although epidemiological data gathered from radiation workers confirm that exposure to low-dose radiation can elevate cancer risk, no evidence was found of a connection between cumulative occupational radiation dose to the thyroid and the risk of thyroid cancer [68, 69].
Therefore, estimating the radiation dose and cancer risk for staff during interventional cardiology and interventional radiology procedures is a significant public health concern [70, 71].
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