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Radiation exposure during transmission measurements: comparison between CT- and germanium-based techniques with a current PET scanner

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Abstract

In positron emission tomographic (PET) scanning, transmission measurements for attenuation correction are commonly performed by using external germanium-68 rod sources. Recently, combined PET and computed tomographic (CT) scanners have been developed in which the CT data can be used for both anatomical-metabolic image formation and attenuation correction of the PET data. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the difference between germanium- and CT-based transmission scanning in terms of their radiation doses by using the same measurement technique and to compare the doses that patients receive during brain, cardiac and whole-body scans. Measurement of absorbed doses to organs was conducted by using a Rando Alderson phantom with thermoluminescent dosimeters. Effective doses were calculated according to the guidelines in the International Commission on Radiation Protection Publication Number 60. Compared with radionuclide doses used in routine 2-[fluorine-18]-fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose PET imaging, doses absorbed during germanium-based transmission scans were almost negligible. On the other hand, absorbed doses from CT-based transmission scans were significantly higher, particularly with a whole-body scanning protocol. Effective doses were 8.81 mSv in the high-speed mode and 18.97 mSv in the high-quality mode for whole-body CT-based transmission scans. These measurements revealed that the doses received by a patient during CT-based transmission scanning are more than those received in a typical PET examination. Therefore, the radiation doses represent a limitation to the generalised use of CT-based transmission measurements with current PET/CT scanner systems.

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Acknowledgements

This study was financially supported by the Program for Promoting Academic Excellence of Universities (89-B-FA22-1-4-05) of the Ministry of Education of Taiwan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nuclear Science, National Tsing-Hua University, 101 Kuang Fu Rd., Sec. 2, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan, R.O.C.

    Tung-Hsin Wu & Tieh-Chi Chu

  2. Institute of Radiological Sciences, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Tung-Hsin Wu, Yung-Hui Huang, Jason J. S. Lee & Shih-Yuan Wang

  3. Department of Medical Image, Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

    Su-Cheng Wang, Cheng-Tau Su & Liang-Kung Chen

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  1. Tung-Hsin Wu
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  2. Yung-Hui Huang
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Correspondence to Tieh-Chi Chu.

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Wu, TH., Huang, YH., Lee, J.J.S. et al. Radiation exposure during transmission measurements: comparison between CT- and germanium-based techniques with a current PET scanner. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 31, 38–43 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-003-1327-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-003-1327-6

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