Elsevier

Seminars in Nuclear Medicine

Volume 38, Issue 5, September 2008, Pages 384-391
Seminars in Nuclear Medicine

Nuclear Medicine Exposure in the United States, 2005-2007: Preliminary Results

https://doi.org/10.1053/j.semnuclmed.2008.05.004Get rights and content

Medical radiation exposure of the U.S. population has not been systematically evaluated for almost 25 years. In 1982, the per-capita dose was estimated to be 0.54 mSv and the collective dose 124,000 person-Sv. The preliminary estimates of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements Scientific Committee 6-2 medical subgroup are that, in 2006, the per-capita dose from all medical exposure (not including radiotherapy) had increased almost 600% to 3.0 mSv and the collective dose had increased more than 700% to approximately 900,000 person-Sv. >Nuclear medicine accounted for only about 2% of all procedures but 26% of the total collective dose from diagnostic studies in medicine. In 1982, the estimated number of nuclear medicine procedures was about 7.5 million. The per-capita effective dose from nuclear medicine was 0.14 mSv and the collective dose was 32,000 person Sv. By 2005, the estimated number of procedures had increased to about 19.6 million. The per-caput effective dose increased to about 0.75 mSv and the collective dose to about 220,000 person Sv. There also has been a marked shift in the type of procedures being performed with cardiac scanning accounting for about 70% of procedures.

Section snippets

Frequency and Mix of Procedures

Data were derived from both primary and secondary data sets. The primary sources on national utilization included Medicare claims data for approximately 40 million subscribers during 2004 as well as commercially available benchmarking reports for various modalities from IMV.3, 4 The IMV reports cover both hospital and nonhospital sites and the surveys typically obtained responses from one-half to two-thirds of the universe of imaging sites. The data provided information on the total numbers of

Frequency, Mix of Procedures, and Collective Effective Dose

The frequency of procedures was derived by the methodology described previously. Growth of nuclear medicine visits (not procedures) by year is shown in Figure 1 and was derived from the IMV data. The collective dose for individual procedures has been estimated by using standard dose coefficients, using an upper level of administered activity and multiplying by the estimated numbers of that specific procedure. The collective doses for each procedure were then totaled and divided by the

Discussion

Table 3 shows available data on the number of nuclear medicine examinations performed between 1972 through 2005. The table indicates that, during the last 25 years or so, diagnostic nuclear medicine procedures increased 5- to 6-fold whereas the U.S. population increased by approximately 50%. During the last decade, there was been 5% annual growth in the number of nuclear medicine procedures while the growth of the U.S. population has been less than 1% annually. Between 1982 and 2005, the

Conclusion

There have been dramatic changes in the practice of nuclear medicine since the last comprehensive surveys and reports were made. The frequency of examinations has increased much faster than the U.S. population growth. Some, once common procedures have become almost extinct (predominantly as a result of CT scanning) whereas cardiac nuclear medicine has gown to become the major contributor to procedure number and to radiation dose. Both per-capita and collective effective doses from nuclear

Acknowledgment

Marvin Rosenstein, PhD, served as the scientific secretary for the NCRP 6-2 medical subgroup.

References (11)

  • Ionizing radiation exposure of the population of the United States: Recommendations of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements

    (1987)
  • Exposure of the U.S. population from diagnostic medical radiation: Recommendations of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements

    (1989)
  • IMV Benchmark Reports, Nuclear Medicine

    (2005)
  • IMV Benchmark Reports, 2005/06, PET

    (2006)
  • Sources and magnitude of occupational and public exposure from nuclear medicine procedures

    (1996)
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (0)

Work of the Committee was supported in part by a contract from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

View full text