Equipment quality control during patient radiation protection optimisation in radionuclide diagnostics

The development of nuclear medicine and, in particular, radionuclide diagnostics in the Russian Federation and the introduction of new technologies causes the necessity of the development and actualizing of the methods of the radionuclide diagnostics optimisation. Patient radiation protection optimisation through the equipment quality control and calibration is necessary to minimize the patient exposure levels and to obtain accurate and reproducible results of the uptake activity evaluation and high-quality image. However, in the national practice, conducting the equipment quality control and calibration is difficult due the lack of the requirements and methodology for quality control. The aim of the current study is the determination of the list of the necessary equipment quality control and calibration procedures in the radionuclide diagnostics department which will be harmonized between national and foreign standards and guidelines. The analysis of the national and the foreign documents standardized and recommended the gamma-camera and single photon emission computed tomography quality control and calibration procedures was performed in the study. The analysis demonstrated the national standards do not involve the frequency of the quality control for the most parameters. However, the methodology in the national standards is completely described, meets with foreign methodology and can be interchangeable, and can be used for quality control. Based on the analysis the list of the gamma camera and single photon emission computed tomography quality control and calibration procedures with recommended frequency, which is necessary for patient radiation protection optimisation and achievement of the accurate diagnostic results, are presented in the study.