Establishment of age-specific reference levels and achievable doses for children and adults undergoing nuclear medicine exams

Reference levels (RLs) and achievable doses (ADs) have been investigated for routine nuclear medicine and molecular imaging procedures across various hospitals. The RLs and ADs were then set at 75. and 50. percentile of the data collected respectively. The minimum and maximum administered activities (in MBq) were asked for ^99mTc-DTPA, ^99mTc-DMSA, ^99mTc-HIDA, ^99mTc-MDP, ^99mTc-Pertechnetate (for thyroid imaging) and ¹⁸F-FDG (whole body imaging), ^99mTc-Sestamibi cardiac scan (rest and stress) 2-day protocols, ^99mTc-parathyroid and ^99mTc-labeled GI bleeding. The pediatrics were divided into three age groups of (> 1-5), (> 5-10) and (> 10-15) years. The observations show that, in most of cases, children are administered higher quantities of radiopharmaceuticals than recommended by guidelines. However, the adults are given right amount of does in most of the imaging procedures. It is shown that findings of the study can enable facilities to compare their radiation doses to the international guidelines and adjust them according to patient body size and weight to get image quality corresponding to right radiation dose. (authors)