Assessment of patient dose and radiation risks at a nuclear medicine department

This study evaluates the radiation dose received by patients during the parathyroid SPECT/CT procedure and extrapolates the associated cancer risks for sensitive organs. The radiation doses were assessed for 20 patients, 12 females (60 %) and eight males (40 %), who underwent the SPECT/CT procedure. The organs of the patients and the effective dose were determined using the administered activity of ^99mTc-methoxyisobutylisonitrilec (MIBI) (AA, MBq) and the dose from the external CT procedure. All procedures utilized two-hybrid systems (GE and Siemens SPECT/CT) at King Saud Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The overall average and range of the effective dose (mSv) is 6.0 (3.1–7.5) per SPECT/CT procedure. The probability of cancer risk is oner per 3400 SPECT/CT procedure, on average. The CT procedures contributed 89.1 % of the total effective dose, while 10.9 % resulted from external exposure (CT exposure). The dose per SPECT/CT examination is lower than most reported literature due to the optimized usage of radionuclides’ and CT image acquisition protocol. The findings of this study are significant in understanding the radiation safety and imaging procedures in the medical field.