Radiation Protection in Positron Emission Tomography-Computed Tomography (PET-CT) Nuclear Medicine Facility

Abstract

Radiation Protection in Positron Emission Tomography-Computed Tomography (PET-CT) Nuclear Medicine Facility

PET is a noninvasive, diagnostic imaging technique for measuring the metabolic activity of cells in the human body. It was developed in the mid-1970s and it was the first scanning method to give functional information about the brain. Positron emission tomography (PET) is an imaging modality in nuclear medicine that uses the principle of coincidence detection of the two annihilation photons resulting from the decay of a positron emitting radionuclide to measure radiotracer distribution within tissues. While there are many clinical situations diagnosed by PET/CT scans, currently oncology procedures far outnumber all other clinical indications. PET is performed to reveal sites of unusually high metabolic activity, and CT is performed both for attenuation correction of PET images and for anatomical localization of areas of unusually high metabolic activity. Because 511 keV photons are more penetrating than the 140 keV photons of 99mTc, more stringent protective measures are required for a PET facility compared to a conventional nuclear medicine facility. It’s advisable for the Authority to include the PET/CT Synthesizer as radiation equipment and issue its operational license.

Presented by: Abdullahi Hassan