Virtual reality for dose optimization in pediatric nuclear medicine: better than the real thing.

The use of nuclear medicine imaging and CT has grown dramatically over the last several decades. In the Unites States, the annual number of nuclear medicine procedures increased 3-fold (from 7 to 20 million) and the annual number of CT procedures 20fold (from 3 to 60 million) between 1985 and 2005 (1). As a result of this increased medical exposure of the population, the average (i.e., per-capita) annual background dose in the Unites States has nearly doubled, from 3.0 to 5.6 mSv (2). There has been increasing societal concern over the potential public health impact— namely, an increased risk of cancer— associated with this dramatic increase in exposure from diagnostic imaging.