Impact of North American Guidelines relating to pediatric nuclear medicine examinations
A survey of 11 U.S. and 2 Canadian children’s hospitals in 2013 determined that 10 modified their administered activities relating to pediatric nuclear medicine scans to be in accordance with the 2010 North American consensus guidelines. The guidelines, motivated by the Image Gently initiative, were developed by a working group for pediatric nuclear medicine consisting of representatives of the Society of Pediatric Radiology (SPR), the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) and the American College of Radiology (ACR). Data was compared with a similar survey conducted in 2007.
The 2007 survey queried the approaches used to determine the administered activities for 16 nuclear medicine procedures for smaller patients as well as the actual activity levels. It demonstrated a wide variation in administered activities. Additionally, the administered activity per unit of body mass and the maximum administered activity varied on average by a factor of three across institutions.
The 2013 survey revealed that the average variability in the activity per body mass and the minimum activity as measured by the factor of variation were substantially reduced by 9.7%. For the eight procedures addressed by the guidelines, half or more of the hospitals were compliant within 20% with the associated parameters in 66% of the cases.
The article published in the June 2015 issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine includes three tables of detailed data, and may by accessed free of charge by clicking here.
REFERENCE
- Fahey FH, Ziniel SI, Manion D et al. Effects of Image Gently and the North American Guidelines: Administered Activities in Children at 13 North American Pediatric Hospitals. 2015 J Nucl Med. 56;5:962-967.