Quality Control of Radiopharmaceutical Dose Calibrators in Nuclear Medicine Unit

As part of the program to ensure quality in nuclear medicine unit, in addition to diagnostic procedures, are evaluated activity meters, which is intended to measure the aliquot of radiation of radionuclides and / or radiopharmaceuticals that are administered to patients undergoing diagnostic investigation and / or therapeutic treatment. The good operating condition of dose calibrators is essential to ensure efficiency, safety and reliability of the measurements, once the lack of accuracy in the responses of these equipments can cause significant errors in the activity administered to the patient and may result in poor quality images resulting in the repetition of examis and interference in the successful treatment of the patient. This study aims to, considering the need for constant evaluation of the functioning of the activity meters and the fact that this issue be part the responsibilities of the professional of radiology, perform quality control testing of these instruments in relation to the most recent norm of National Commission of nuclear Energy (CNEN-NN 3:05) in Brazil, that is also in according to the international standards and reference values established during acceptance testing of these instruments in a nuclear medicine service. For this, was made a review of specific literature and the use of barium, cobalt and cesium to the tests in a nuclear medicine service of the state of Pernambuco in Brazil. The obtained results of the specific tests utilized to verify the correct working of the dose calibrators show coherency with the resolutions of the CNEN-NN 3:05 and are also in agreement with the international standards to that the measurement of activities be made with accurate results and thereby contribute to the proper functioning of nuclear medicine service.