Three reasons for on-line remote telemonitoring of patients treated with high doses of radionuclide therapy. Our experience.

Objective: Following radionuclide therapy, patients usually must remain hospitalised in special "restricted access area" 2-5 days, until radiation in their body drops below a certain level. During this period medical personnel can be faced with some challenges. Based on our previous experience, we used telemedicine approach as solution for it.

THYRPAN-TM Prototype: New System for Online Telemonitoring of Patients with Thyroid Carcinoma During the Treatment with a High Dose of Radioiodine.

Background: Our team devised a real-time telemonitoring system (THYRPAN-TM) for measurement of the radiation exposure rate during the hospitalization of patients treated with high doses of radioiodine in the special premises with restricted access ("restricted area" [RA]).

Subjects And Methods: The THYRPAN-TM prototype was tested for stability, efficacy, and linearity in a 32-day measurement of a 110 MBq (131)I source. Furthermore, it was tested on 15 patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma who stayed in the RA for 3 days, following their radioiodine treatment.