PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Mashari Alnaaimi
AU  - Mousa Alduaij
AU  - Musab Algaily
AU  - Fisal Shanawey
AU  - Talal Mohammedzein
AU  - Farida Alkandri
AU  - Mohamed Shaban
AU  - Saud Alenezi
TI  - NATIONAL DIAGNOSTIC REFERENCE LEVELS FOR NUCLEAR MEDICINE IN KUWAIT
AID  - 10.2967/jnmt.121.262175
DP  - 2021 Sep 01
TA  - Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
PG  - jnmt.121.262175
4099  - http://tech.snmjournals.org/content/early/2021/09/27/jnmt.121.262175.short
4100  - http://tech.snmjournals.org/content/early/2021/09/27/jnmt.121.262175.full
AB  - The diagnostic reference level (DRL) is an optimization tool of patients exposure used to evaluate and provide guidance for radiation doses in medical imaging. In the past few decades, there has been a global increase in the number of diagnostic imaging procedures, including nuclear medicine procedures, and consequently the patient radiation exposure. This has encouraged international and national healthcare organizations to take actions and keep up with such changes to meet the expectations of an increasing use of ionizing radiation in medicine. The DRL in Kuwait was established by investigating the administered activity of radiopharmaceuticals and computed tomography (CT) radiation doses in hybrid imaging systems. The DRL were determined based on the 75th percentile of radiopharmaceuticals administered activity distribution as recommended by the international commission on radiation protection (ICRP). This study presents the establishment process and results of the first national DRLs for nuclear medicine procedures in Kuwait as a way to optimize radiation exposure. The DRLs determined in Kuwait are in good agreement with other published DRLs in Europe, Japan, Korea, Australia and the US.