The establishment of national diagnostic reference levels for adult SPECT-CT in Saudi Arabia

Saeed Mueed Al-Qahtani, Moaaz Aqeel Alidasroos, Essam M. Alkhybari, Marwan Ahmed Althomali, Ali Hamed Alomari, Omemh Abdullah Bawazeer, Hassan B. Hawsawi, Ali Ibrahim Aamry, Jaber Abdulwahab Asiri, Azzam Abdulaziz Aloufi, Amr Dakhilallah Aljehani, Maram Bandar Al-Osaimi, Areej Khalid Alosaimi, Anwar Khalaf Alsulami, Ahmed Yahya Sabi, Talal Mosa Kamli, Abdelmoneim Adam Sulieman, Abdul Wali Ajlouni

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

This study aims to introduce national diagnostic reference levels (NDRLs) for adult hybrid single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT-CT) in nuclear medicine (NM) departments in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The administered activity (AA) of radiopharmaceuticals, volume-weighted computed tomography dose index (CTDIvol) and dose length product (DLP) for ten hybrid SPECT/CT examinations were collected and analysed for one year. The median of AA, CTDIvol and DLP for each dose quantity was derived and the suggested national DRLs were determined based on the 75th percentile for all identified SPECT-CT examinations. A comparison of the defined adult NDRLs in Saudi Arabia with the published data of other countries was performed. Although there are no significant variations of the proposed NDRL of AA between countries, the proposed NDRLs of the integrated CT metrics exceed the published data in most procedures. NM departments are urged to consider optimisation for both image quality and radiation protection.

Original languageEnglish
Article number031505
JournalJournal of Radiological Protection
Volume43
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2023

Keywords

  • national diagnostic reference level
  • NDRL
  • nuclear medicine
  • radiation exposure
  • SPECT-CT

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