Nuclear Medicine

 

Image Gently® and Nuclear Medicine

Update:  Image Gently and Nuclear Medicine at 10 Years, The Journal of Nuclear Medicine

One size does not fit all...

  • There is no question - pediatric nuclear medicine helps us keep kids healthy and saves lives! 
  • When we image, radiation dose matters! 
    • Children are more sensitive to radiation. 
    • What we do now lasts their lifetime. 
  • So, when we image, let's Image Gently®.

When a pediatric nuclear medicine study is the right thing to do:

Following several collaborative expert consensus workshops at SNMMI and SPR Annual Meetings, additional radiopharmaceutical recommendations have been added: 99mTc-HMPAO and 99mTc-ceretec for brain imaging, 99mTc-sestamibi and 99mTc-tetrofosmin for myocardial perfusion imaging, 123I-NaI for thyroid imaging, 99mTc-red blood cells for blood pool imaging, 99mTc-white blood cells for infection imaging, and 68Ga-DOTATOC for neuroendocrine tumor imaging. 

The additional recommendations follow very closely to those in the European Association of Nuclear Medicine Guidelines, so they can be considered harmonized.

Previous dissemination of the guidelines has have a positive effect in the practice of many nuclear medicine departments dealing with children

The new table is entitled: 2016 Update: North American Consensus Guidelines for Pediatric Administered Radiopharmaceutical Activities is available below:

North American Consensus Guidelines for Pediatric Administered Radiopharmaceutical Activities

It is recommended that this table is printed and posted in the radiopharmaceutical laboratory/”hot lab” in your institutions.

Please find  the Journal of Nuclear Medicine editorial regarding the 1026 update of the North American Guidelines.  

S. Ted Treves, MD 
for the IG Nuclear Medicine Working Group

Radiation Dose Resources

 

We encourage you to visit the Dose Optimization Taskforce Page of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) as an additional resource.

   

Nuclear Medicine Resources

Medical Professionals

Referring Providers - Content under construction

Nuclear Medicine Physicians and Radiologists - Content under construction

 

Medical Physicists - Content under construction

 

Technologists - Content under construction

 

 

Parents

 

Radiation Dose Resources

SNMMI’s Dose Optimization Task Force has created two new online tools to help educate imaging professionals on best practices for pediatric and adult nuclear medicine:

 

The Pediatric Injected Activity Tool reports recommended injected activity for pediatric patients based on the North American consensus guidelines and the European Association of Nuclear Medicine guidelines. With this tool, specify the nuclear medicine procedure and the pediatric patient’s weight to find the recommended administered activity for the patient.

The Nuclear Medicine Radiation Dose Tool provides convenient access to guidelines and radiation dose estimates (effective dose and critical organ dose) for many nuclear medicine exams. With this tool, specify the nuclear medicine procedure, the injected activity, and the patient model (gender, age) to calculate the effective dose for this procedure.

 

 

Acknowledgements

S. Ted Treves, MD, Chair
Image Gently Nuclear Medicine Initiative 

Michael J. Gelfand,  MD, Past-President
SNMMI Pediatric Imaging Council, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

Marguerite T. Parisi, MD, MS Ed., Chair
SPR Nuclear Medicine Committee, Seattle Children's Hospital

Larry Binkovitz, MD, President
SNMMI Pediatric Imaging Council, Mayo Clinic

Stephanie Spottswood, MD, Sec-Treasurer
SNMMI Pediatric Imaging Council, Vanderbilt University

Frederic Fahey, DSc, Physicist,
Children's Hospital Boston

Dominique Delbeke, MD, PhD, 2009-10
SNMMI President, Vanderbilt University 

Nanci A. Burchell, MBA, CNMT, FSNMTS
Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics, Kansas City, MO

Joanne Louis, CNMT, Children's Hospital Boston
Adam Alessio, PhD, Medical Physicist, Seattle Children's

Active Members:

  1. Ted Treves, MD
  2. Michael Gelfand, MD
  3. Meg Parisi, MD
  4. Fred Fahey, MD
  5. Neha Kwartra, MD