Radiobiological risks in terms of effective dose and organ dose from 18F-FDG whole-body PET/CT procedures

Suhaib Alameen; Nissren Tamam; Sami Awadain; Abdelmoneim Sulieman; Latifa Alkhaldi; Amira Ben Hmed

doi:10.1016/j.sjbs.2021.06.055

Radiobiological risks in terms of effective dose and organ dose from ¹⁸F-FDG whole-body PET/CT procedures

Saudi J Biol Sci. 2021 Oct;28(10):5947-5951. doi: 10.1016/j.sjbs.2021.06.055. Epub 2021 Jun 24.

Authors

Suhaib Alameen¹, Nissren Tamam², Sami Awadain¹, Abdelmoneim Sulieman³, Latifa Alkhaldi⁴, Amira Ben Hmed⁴

Affiliations

¹ Sudan University of Science and Technology College of Medical Radiologic Science, Sudan Science, P.O. Box 1908, Khartoum, Sudan.
² Physics Department, College of Sciences, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, P.O. Box 84428, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia.
³ Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Radiology and Medical Imaging Department, P.O. Box 422, Alkharj 11942, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Department of Basic Sciences, Deanship of Preparatory Year and Supporting Studies, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, P.O. Box 1982, Dammam 34212, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Introduction: Integrated Positron Emission Tomography (PET) with Computerized tomography (CT) (PET/CT) are widely used to diagnose, stage and track human diseases during whole body scanning. Multi-modality imaging is an interesting area of research that aims at acquiring united morphological-functional image information for accurate diagnosing and staging of the disease. However, PET/CT procedure accompanied with high radiation dose from CT and administered radioactivity. The aim of the present study was to estimate the patients' dose from ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose imaging (18F-FDG) hybrid PET/CT whole body scan.

Materials and methods: RADAR (Radiation Dose Assessment Resource) software was used to estimate the effective dose for 156 patients (110 (70.5%)) males and 46 (39.5%) female) examined using Discovery PET/CT 710, GE Medical Systems installed at Kuwait Cancer Control Center (KCCC).

Results: The effective dose results presented in this PET/CT study ranged from (1.56-9.94 mSv). The effective dose was calculated to be 3.88 mSv in females and 3.71 mSv in males. The overall breast (female), lung, liver, kidney and thyroid were 7.4, 7.2, 5.2, 4, 3 and 2.9, respectively.For females, the body mass index (BMI) was 28.49 kg/m² and for males it was 26.50 kg/m² which showed overweight values for both genders. Conclusions: The findings indicate that the effective dose of 18F-FDG in both male and female patients was not substantially different. The study suggested that the risk-benefit proportions of any ¹⁸F-FDG whole body PET/CT scan should be clarified and carefully weighed. Patient's doses are lower compared with previous studies.

Keywords: 18F-FDG; Effective dose; Organ dose; PET/CT.