Results of the EU-project peddose.net: Dosimetry and health effects of diagnostic applications of radiopharmaceuticals

Objectives The aim of the EU-funded project (www.peddose.net) was to retrospectively provide data on biokinetics and dosimetry in children and adults for diagnostic nuclear medicine, including the CT absorbed doses for hybrid imaging.

Methods An in-depth bibliographic survey was conducted to get an overview of existing peer reviewed publications on biokinetic and dosimetric data for diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals and dose reduction methods in nuclear medicine including hybrid systems.

Results The quality of the data published is highly variable with respect to the number of patients, time points (e.g. bladder voiding intervals) and the effective dose calculation methodology. Some of the data were acquired more than 20 years ago. For some commonly used radiopharmaceuticals there are no (⁶⁸Ga-DOTATATE) or incomplete (¹⁸F-Fluoride) data on biokinetics. Only few data for paediatric nuclear medicine were derived from actual measurements. Many publications deal with the optimisation of diagnostic procedures, most of them on ¹⁸F-FDG PET/(CT) using a wide range of administered activities which hampers the comparison of these studies. However, the use of more sensitive instrumentation (e.g. 3D-PET, TOF PET) does not automatically result in lowering injected activity levels as these techniques allow for better image quality and reduced scanning times. CT is contributing significantly to the total radiation exposure of hybrid systems. The literature review revealed a high variability in applied CT protocols, reflecting a lack of standardization.

Conclusions The results of the project provide a comprehensive overview on the available dosimetry-related data for adults and children and on the usage and dosimetry of hybrid systems. Furthermore, it identifies areas for future research.

Research Support The Support Action PEDDOSE.NET was financially supported by the European Commission under the 7^th Framework Programme FP7-Health-2009-1.2-6, grant agreement number 241608