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Pretransfusion blood irradiation: Clinical rationale and dosimetric considerations
Author(s) -
Masterson Mary Ellen,
Febo Robert
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
medical physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.473
H-Index - 180
eISSN - 2473-4209
pISSN - 0094-2405
DOI - 10.1118/1.596809
Subject(s) - blood irradiation therapy , dosimetry , medicine , dose rate , nuclear medicine , irradiation , blood volume , medical physics , pathology , physics , alternative medicine , nuclear physics
The irradiation of blood before transfusion into immunosuppressed patients is an increasingly common technique used to prevent graft‐versus‐host disease. A technical procedure is described for the calibration of blood irradiators, including the determination of absolute dose rate and relative dose distribution over the blood volume. Results of dose rate measurements on commercially available irradiators indicate differences of +5% to −13% with manufacturer‐supplied calibrations and variations in the relative dose rate over the irradiation volume from 70% to 180%. The clinical implications of these findings and the need for accurate dosimetry are discussed.