title: Patient surface radiation doses at two PET imaging facilities.
abstract: To develop a practical means of auditing the procedures and to optimize the administered radionuclide activity, patient surface radiation doses following the administration of 18FDG for PET imaging have been measured at breast and gonad locations at two PET facilities. Patient dosimetry was performed using LiF TLD-100 chips placed near the breasts and gonads for 2 h following tracer injection. Standard uptake values from the image-reconstruction algorithms of one PET camera were investigated in regions of interest in tomograms of the myocardium and liver with the aim of validating dosimetry at breasts. Mean doses measured on the patient's skin ranged between 3.3 and 6.1 microGy MBq(-1) at the gonads and between 3.9 and 6.4 microGy MBq(-1) at the breasts, noticeably lower than the calculations reported in the literature. These values show good concordance with the injected activities, although they are not proportional. The proportion of injected activity actually contributing to image production seems to decrease gradually as the injected activity increases. Conversely, for a given injected activity, breast and gonadal doses were found to be lower than the values expected from the numerical calculations reported in the literature, showing increasing discrepancies when the injected activity increased. Doses measured at the right breast were consistently higher than for the left, which is indicative of greater radiotracer absorption by the liver compared to the average absorption in the body.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, Complutense University, 28040 Madrid, Spain. luciano@med.ucm.es
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Cordeiro
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vano
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Perez Castejon
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jimenez
authors.forename: H R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Montz
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Domper
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Carreras
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001940:Breast / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D006066:Gonads / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism*; D006321:Heart / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D009206:Myocardium / Q000378:metabolism; D009928:Organ Specificity; D010053:Ovary / Q000378:metabolism*; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011874:Radiometry / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012449:Safety; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012867:Skin / Q000378:metabolism*; D013819:Thermoluminescent Dosimetry / Q000295:instrumentation
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18