BACKGROUND A national survey of patient exposure from nuclear medicine diagnostic procedures was performed by Slovenian Radiation Protection Administration in order to estimate their contribution to the collective effective dose to the population of Slovenia. METHODS A set of 36 examinations with the highest contributions to the collective effective dose was identified. Data about frequencies...

Molecular imaging is commonly used to improve the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Nuclear medicine offers cutting-edge procedures instruments, computers radiopharmaceuticals for various diseases, including oncology indications. The detailed images provided by positron emission tomography (PET) can accurately image biochemical or physiologic/pathologic phenomena.

  Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) is a new approach to patient management which incorporates best evidence with the clinical expertise of the health care providers. Although this approach has had a rapid growth in many clinical disciplines, its applications in radiology and nuclear medicine has not been addressed sufficiently. In this review EBM is briefly explained...

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-capi...

Nuclear medicine in the United States has grown because of advances in technology, including hybrid imaging, the introduction of new radiopharmaceuticals for diagnosis and therapy, and the development of molecular imaging based on the tracer principle, which is not based on radioisotopes. Continued growth of the field will require cost-effectiveness data and evidence that nuclear medicine proce...

The production of radioisotopes for use in biomedical procedures such as diagnostic imaging and/or therapeutic treatments is achieved through nuclear reactions in reactors or from charged particle bombardment in accelerators. In reactors the nuclear reactions are initiated with neutrons while in accelerators the typical charged particle reactions utilize protons although deuterons and α−particl...

Background: Hot lab is a specially designed room in a nuclear medicine hospital where the radiopharmaceuticals are delivered, stored and prepared for dispensing. 99Mo/99mTc-generator is the major source in the hot lab used for various medical imaging. It is important to maintain a standard for hot lab procedures to optimize the patient care and minimize radiation exposure to all nuclear medicin...