The Effect of a Suspended Radiation Protection System on Occupational Radiation Doses During Infrarenal EVAR Procedures: A Randomised Controlled Study.

Objective: To compare the protective effect of Zero Gravity (ZG) with conventional radiation protection during endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR). Secondly, user experience was surveyed with a questionnaire on ergonomics.

Methods: This was a single centre, prospective, randomised, two arm trial where 71 consecutive elective infrarenal EVAR procedures were randomised into two groups: (1) operator using ZG and assistant using conventional protection (n = 36), and (2) operator and assistant using conventional radiation protection (n = 35).

Occupational radiation dose from gastrointestinal endoscopy procedures with special emphasis on eye lens doses in endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography.

Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) procedures may result in remarkable radiation doses to patients and staff. The aim of this prospective study was to determine occupational exposures in gastrointestinal endoscopy procedures, with a special emphasis on eye lens dose in ERCP. Altogether 604 fluoroscopy-guided procedures, of which 560 were ERCPs belonging to four American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy procedural complexity levels, were performed using two fluoroscopy systems.

Winter condition variability decreases the economic sustainability of reindeer husbandry.

Wild and semidomesticated reindeer are one of the key species in Arctic and subarctic areas, and their population dynamics are closely tied to winter conditions. Difficult snow conditions have been found to decrease the calving success and survivability of reindeer, but the economic effects of variation in winter conditions on reindeer husbandry have not been studied. In this study, we combine state-of-the-art economic-ecological modeling with the analysis of annual reindeer management reports from Finland.

Exploring characteristics of national forest inventories for integration with global space-based forest biomass data.

National forest inventories (NFIs) are a reliable source for national forest measurements. However, they are usually not developed for linking with remotely sensed (RS) biomass information. There are increasing needs and opportunities to facilitate this link towards better global and national biomass estimation.

Staff eye lens dose in interventional radiology and cardiology in Finland.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the eye lens and whole-body radiation doses to interventional radiology and cardiology staff in two Finnish hospitals.

Methods: Simultaneous measurements of personal dose equivalent quantities H(3) and H(10) were conducted in clinical conditions during different radiological and cardiological interventional procedures. In order to study the feasibility to estimate eye lens dose with H(10) measured over the protective apron or thyroid shield, the ratio between measured H(3) and H(10) was investigated.