[Intl_DxMedPhys] EXT MSG I-131 dialysis question

[Johnson, Loretta M]

When I was in school, we treated a thyroid cancer patient on dialysis as an outpatient, so he could go to his usual dialysis center, which was a couple of blocks from the hospital.  I was the student assisting the medical physicist.  A week or two before, we went to the dialysis center to talk with people there, who arranged to move everyone else being treated there some hours earlier in the day on this patient’s first two treatments after therapy.  His dialysis started mid-afternoon, after almost everyone else was gone.  We had given radiation safety training to a bunch of nurses, and one of them had requested to be not present at the time of our patient’s dialysis – since the training was about a week in advance, the facility had no trouble moving her hours for the two days of dialysis.

My recollection is that he received the dose Monday at about 3pm and dialysis on Tuesday and Thursday at about 3pm.  I was present for the therapy and both dialysis sessions, standing around with a meter.  Before each session, we covered everything on and around the patient’s chair with chucks, so that we wouldn’t contaminate the chair or floor.  Each time, we found just one drop on a chuck, different locations.  Radiation safety showed up at the end of each session to take the hot trash to decay in their facility.

Dialysis equipment has to be extremely efficient at keeping all hazardous substances in the tubes, which are disposed after use, in order to spare any biological (or radiological) contamination of the machine.

Peace,
Loretta

Loretta Johnson, Ph.D., DABR, FAAPM | Assistant Professor
Director | Division of Physics and Engineering
Department of Radiology | Heersink School of Medicine
UAB | The University of Alabama at Birmingham
GSB Suite #301 | 619 19th Street South | Birmingham, AL 35249
P: 205.934.7592 | lorettajohnson at uabmc.edu<mailto:lorettajohnson at uabmc.edu>

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From: Intl_dxmedphys_wd_osu_list <intl_dxmedphys_wd_osu_list-bounces+lorettajohnson=uabmc.edu at lists.osu.edu> on behalf of Dxmedphys new list <intl_dxmedphys_wd_osu_list at lists.osu.edu>
Reply-To: Michael Masiar <mmasiar at gmail.com>
Date: Monday, September 15, 2025 at 4:21 PM
To: Dxmedphys new list <intl_dxmedphys_wd_osu_list at lists.osu.edu>
Subject: EXT MSG [Intl_DxMedPhys] I-131 dialysis question

Hi all, I am not sure how to answer the below question from a client of mine. Any advice or relevant sample policies/procedure would be appreciated! We have a I-131 therapy, but the patient is on dialysis . I do not think we can do him because
Hi all,

I am not sure how to answer the below question from a client of mine. Any advice or relevant sample policies/procedure would be appreciated!


We have a I-131 therapy, but the patient is on dialysis . I do not think we can do him because the dose is 150mCI and this would contaminate the machine as well as being in close proximity to the tech/nurse.
Do you agree.




Michael Masiar MS DABR
Certified Medical Physicist
Therapy Physics, Inc.
2501 Cherry Ave., Suite 270
Signal Hill, CA 90755
email: mmasiar at gmail.com<mailto:mmasiar at gmail.com>
cell: 310-625-9906
office: 562-317-0650

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