Effective dose Estimation in Whole Body 18F-FDG PET/CT Imaging

Positron emission tomography–computed tomography (PET–CT) with internal administration of the FDG-18 is characterized as a widespread functional imaging modality in diagnostic radiation medicine, which increases the patient effective doses owing to the presence of internal and external radiation sources. Hence, patient effective dose estimation has been pinpointed as a significant factor in radiation protection assessment. A large number of studies have been published in this regard, and various dosimetry methods have been surveyed. According to our previous research, 10 patients had participated in PET–CT scans with three static time sequences imaging. PET effective doses were estimated using a simple method derived from Anderson et al. and Kaushik et al. coefficients, and the CT effective doses were surveyed with a CTDI phantom and cylindrical ionization chamber. The CT dose was tripled owing to the three static time-sequences imaging. The effective doses were calculated using different coefficients and the results of the PET effective doses were compared. The PET–CT effective dose was varied from 17.14 to 18.42 mSv based on Kaushik et al. coefficients which were measured for one low-dose CT scan. This study aimed to survey simple PET–CT effective dose estimation using three static-time imaging approaches which increases the total patient effective doses.