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

doi:10.1088/1361-6498/ace452

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

J Radiol Prot. 2023 Jul 14;43(3). doi: 10.1088/1361-6498/ace452.

Authors

Saeed Mueed Al-Qahtani¹, Moaaz Aqeel Alidasroos², Essam M Alkhybari³, Marwan Ahmed Althomali¹, Ali Hamed Alomari⁴, Omemh Abdullah Bawazeer¹, Hassan B Hawsawi⁵, Ali Ibrahim Aamry⁶, Jaber Abdulwahab Asiri⁶, Azzam Abdulaziz Aloufi⁷, Amr Dakhilallah Aljehani⁸, Maram Bandar Al-Osaimi⁹, Areej Khalid Alosaimi¹⁰, Anwar Khalaf Alsulami¹¹, Ahmed Yahya Sabi¹², Talal Mosa Kamli¹³, Abdelmoneim Adam Sulieman³, Abdul-Wali Ajlouni¹

Affiliations

¹ Physics Department, College of Applied Science, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia.
² Department of Maintenance, Directorate of Health Affairs, Makkah, Saudi Arabia.
³ Department of Radiology and Medical Imaging, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, Alkharj, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Physics Department, Al-Qunfudah University College, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Administration of Medical Physics, King Abdullah Medical City, Makkah, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Nuclear Medicine Department, King Saud Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
⁷ Medical Physics Department, King Abdulaziz Specialist Hospital, Taif, Saudi Arabia.
⁸ Medical Physics Department, King Fahad Armed Forces Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
⁹ Nuclear Medicine Department, King Faisal Medical Complex, Taif, Saudi Arabia.
¹⁰ Medical Physics Department, King Faisal Medical City, Abha, Saudi Arabia.
¹¹ Nuclear Medicine Department, King Fahad Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
¹² Nuclear Medicine Department, King Fahad Central Hospital, Jazan, Saudi Arabia.
¹³ Nuclear Medicine Department, King Fahd Central Hospital, Madinah, Saudi Arabia.

PMID: 37406624
DOI: 10.1088/1361-6498/ace452

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 (CTDI_vol) and dose length product (DLP) for ten hybrid SPECT/CT examinations were collected and analysed for one year. The median of AA, CTDI_voland DLP for each dose quantity was derived and the suggested national DRLs were determined based on the 75^thpercentile 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.

Keywords: NDRL; SPECT-CT; national diagnostic reference level; nuclear medicine; radiation exposure.

MeSH terms

Adult
Diagnostic Reference Levels*
Humans
Radiation Dosage
Reference Values
Saudi Arabia
Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon*
Tomography, X-Ray Computed / methods