Prevention of Radiation Damages Using Bismuth- epoxy Composite

Introduction: Considering the increasing request for CT scan imaging due to lung and heart diseases, it is necessary to pay attention to the radiation protection of patients in CT scan. Today, lead is used as an effective protective material in imaging processes, which has a high atomic number and high attenuation coefficient. Among the disadvantages of lead protection is its toxicity and heavy weight. For this reason, researchs have been started on the production of lead-free protectives as new polymer-based materials. Therefore, in order to prevent radiation damages in CT scan, new bismuth-epoxy composite protector have been prepared in this research.
Materials: Composite shields that have a polymer material as a matrix and a filler material as a reinforcement prepared according to the researcher’s protocol to protect against X-rays. In this research, bismuth metal has been used as a filler in the epoxy matrix. In order to show the difference in the conditions of using a shield and without a shield, the amount of radiation damage prevention was measured using a dosimeter. This study was used in the CT scan device and special chest CT phantom along with the dosimeter within the phantom to study the received dose values.
Results: The values of radiation dose changes by calculating the mass attenuation coefficients with and without bismuth-epoxy composite protection showed the changes of dose values for preventing radiation damages.
Conclusion: The reduction of dose amounts suggested the possibility of reducing the biological effects of radiation and preserving the health of the society as the practical effects of using bismuth-epoxy composite shields. According to the principle of preferring prevention over treatment, it’s recommended to use these protectors especially in CT scan.