OBJECTIVE The aim of this article is to provide a general method to help explain radiation exposure to patients presenting for nuclear medicine procedures. The concept is to convert the effective dose from any nuclear medicine procedure to the equivalent time in months or years to obtain the same effective dose from background radiation. METHODS The effective dose of each common diagnostic nu...

introduction: journal clubs play an important role in teaching evidence based medicine (ebm). evidence based journal clubs focus on real problems of the group, and set a minimum level of evidence for articles to be presented, and in the end a clinical bottom line is set to be used in the daily clinical practice. in this article, we have explained our experience in running evidence based journal...

PET (positron emission tomography) is a powerful imaging technique that can provide quantitative information on the distribution of positron emitter labeled radiopharmaceuticals (PET radiopharmaceuticals) in the body. Positrons (ß+) are positively charged beta particles. They are emitted when the atom is proton rich. A positron has only a transient existence. After losing all of its kinetic ene...

PET (positron emission tomography) is a powerful imaging technique that can provide quantitative information on the distribution of positron emitter labeled radiopharmaceuticals (PET radiopharmaceuticals) in the body. Positrons (ß+) are positively charged beta particles. They are emitted when the atom is proton rich. A positron has only a transient existence. After losing all of its kinetic ene...

Some nuclear medicine technologists may be called on to administer COVID-19 vaccines, but many have never administered a vaccine. This article summarizes vaccination procedures and provides links additional information, training, self-assessment.

The rise in demand for specialized medical services in the U.S has been recognized as one of the contributors to increased health care costs. Nuclear medicine is a specialized service that uses relatively new technologies and radiopharmaceuticals with a short half-life (minutes) for diagnosis and treatment of patients. Nuclear medicine procedures are multi-step and have to be performed under re...

When we embarked on our careers a decade ago, there was renewed interest and numerous opportunities for a career in Nuclear Medicine. We were attracted to the variety of procedures in the field of Nuclear Medicine: PET had just come to the clinic, presenting a great deal of promise and a revival of job opportunities. However, recent changes in the medical care paradigm and reimbursement have di...

In nuclear medicine, the dose received by critical organs becomes important due to radioisotopes placed inside body. Medical applications are among main causes of radiation exposure general population. these applications, Computed Tomography (CT) scans primary source, while medicine is second largest. The informed decisions that must be made regarding use procedures require a better understandi...

We analyzed the ordering and impact of the first 171 fee-for-service cardiovascular nuclear medicine procedures at one hospital. The ordering physicians said 72% of the study results were useful and 28% contributed to changes in patient management. Experienced cardiology reviewers, however, felt that only 65% of studies were appropriately ordered, that 97% of appropriately ordered studies provi...

introduction: radioactive materials deliver internal radiation dose to patients in nuclear medicine. manual internal radiation dose assessment is a complicated method. introduction of a simple dose calculation software is the main goal of the present study. methods: using the best current data in internal dose calculation (s-factors) recommended by icrp and by considering other technical metho...