Effective doses to patients from CT acquisitions on the GE Infinia Hawkeye: a comparison of calculation methods.

Background: Nuclear medicine scans may be accompanied by CT acquisitions to provide localization of radioisotope uptake through image fusion and for use in attenuation correction. The effective doses to patients resulting from radioisotope administrations and from diagnostic CT scans are well documented. However, the development of gamma cameras with low dose CT attachments introduces the requirement for calculation of effective doses arising from non-standard CT acquisitions.

Investigation of normal ranges for left ventricular ejection fraction in cardiac gated blood pool imaging studies using different processing workstations.

Background: An investigation has been undertaken to calculate normal ranges for left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) measured by the gated blood pool (GBP) technique. A common set of normal studies was used at 11 hospitals within the south of England to assess the variability of results and normal ranges.

Methods: Normal studies were identified by retrospective review of patients who had undergone a GBP study and echocardiogram at the Royal United Hospital, Bath.

Measurement of Bremsstrahlung as a practical alternative to use of a liquid scintillation counter for the assessment of low activities of 90Y.

Background: The use of 90Y for nuclear medicine therapies has steadily increased over the last 10 years. High administered activities are measured in a calibrated re-entrant ionization chamber, while the most sensitive method of assessment of low activities uses a liquid scintillation counter. This method requires the samples to have an acceptably low quench, and therefore heavily coloured samples must undergo chemical processing before assessment.