EXPOSURE OF A SERVICE TECHNICIAN REPAIRING A BIPLANE X-RAY SYSTEM.

While repairing a biplane cardiovascular X-ray system in a hospital, a service technician accidentally activated the system's floor pedal. He continued his work under unnoticed exposure for about 5 min until the system alarm was automatically activated. About 2 h after the exposure, the technician developed an erythema on parts of his left face and neck. The next day, he reported his incident to the competent authorities and was hospitalised in a unit specialised in treating heavily irradiated patients. Frequent blood analysis did not show any signs for a significant exposure to radiation. The Federal Office of Public Health then conducted extensive dose estimations. It could be shown that the dismounted collimator was always in front of the lateral X-ray tube, shielding the technician from the direct beam. The dose estimations came to the following conservative results: an effective dose of 5 mSv, a skin dose of 200 mSv, an eye lens dose of 100 mSv and an extremity dose (arm) of 700 mSv. The cause of the erythema remains unclear since the estimated doses are thought to be too low to induce any visible effect on the skin.

OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE TO EXTERNAL RADIATION IN SWITZERLAND.

Individual monitoring for both external and internal exposures is well regulated in Switzerland. The article gives an overview on the occupational exposure to external radiation of workers based on the data collected in the Swiss national dose registry (NDR) in 2013. The NDR records the monthly doses of radiation workers since the introduction of ICRP 60 recommendations and is manifested in the Swiss ordinance since 1994. Annual dose limits for effective dose are typically exceeded once a year in Switzerland, mostly in medicine. The NDR is a useful optimisation tool to identify and characterise areas with the highest exposures. While exceeded dose limits were often related to accidental acute exposure in the past, they are now more related to continuous exposure during normal work, especially in medicine.

Fifty years of individual monitoring of ionising radiation in Switzerland: history, trends and perspectives.

In the last 50 y, individual monitoring of ionising radiation in Switzerland underwent substantial development, strongly influenced by type of applications of ionising radiation, monitoring technologies, knowledge of health risks, protection philosophies and regulatory frameworks. The role of individual monitoring in the system of radiation protection moved from a passive, a posteriori control of limits towards an important and more interactive tool for optimisation. Dose trends for occupational exposures document these developments. In the future, new and emerging dose intensive applications in medicine and an increasing demand for international harmonisation, particularly in Europe, will pose new challenges in individual monitoring.

[Bilateral shoulder-hand syndrome revealing hypothyroidism and colon carcinoma]. / Syndrome épaule-main bilatéral révélateur d'une hypothyroïdie et d'un carcinome du côlon.

The autors describe a case of a bilateral shoulder-hand syndrome. A Hashimoto's thyroiditis bound hypothyroidism was retained as promoting factor. Rheumatic manifestations amended slowly with a treatment of corticosteroids associated to thyroid hormones replacement. Eighteen months after the onset of the rheumatic complaints, a colorectal cancer was also diagnosed. The respective role of hypothyroidism and cancer in the emergence of this severe shoulder-hand syndrome is discussed.