PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Shorouk Dannoon
AU  - Saud Alenezi
AU  - Naheel Al-Nafisi
AU  - Samar Almutairi
AU  - Fatma Dashti
AU  - Medhat Osman
AU  - Abdelhamaid Elgazzar
TI  - Reducing Radiation Exposure from PET Patients
AID  - 10.2967/jnmt.121.263223
DP  - 2022 Apr 01
TA  - Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
PG  - jnmt.121.263223
4099  - http://tech.snmjournals.org/content/early/2022/04/19/jnmt.121.263223.short
4100  - http://tech.snmjournals.org/content/early/2022/04/19/jnmt.121.263223.full
AB  - Objective: This study measured the typical emitted radiation rate from the urinary bladder of PET patients after their scan and investigated simple methods for reducing the emitted radiation before discharge. Methods: The study included 83 patients, 63 [18F]FDG and 20 [18F]NaF. Emitted radiation from the patients’ urinary bladder was measured with an ionization survey meter at a 1-meter distance, presuming the urinary bladder to be the primary source of radiation. The measurements were taken at different time points after PET image acquisition: immediate (pre-void 1), voided (post-void 1), after waiting 30 min in the uptake room while drinking 500 mL of water (pre-void 2) and voided again (post-void 2). Results: For [18F]FDG patients, the reduction of emitted radiation due to drinking water and voiding alone from pre-void 1 to decay corrected post void 2 was an average of 22.49 ± 7.48% (13.65 ± 3.42 µSv/h to 10.48 ± 2.37 µSv/h, P = 0). As for [18F]NaF patients, the reduction was an average of 25.80 ± 10.03% (9.83 ± 2.01 µSv/h to 7.23 ± 1.49 µSv/h, P = 0). Conclusion: In addition to the physical decay of the radiotracers, utilizing the biological clearance properties have resulted in a significant decrease of the emitted radiation in this study. Implementing additional water consumption to facilitate voiding with 30 minutes of wait time before discharging certain [18F]FDG and [18F]NaF patients that need to be in close contact with others such as elderly, caregivers and inpatients, might facilitate lowering their emitted radiation by an average of 22-25% due to voiding, not counting in the physical decay which should add an additional 17% reduction.