Skip to content
Home▶ Journals▶ Journal of Nuclear Technology in Applied Science▶Archive▶Vol. 14 No. 1 (2026)▶Reassessment of Effective Doses for Selected Diagnostic…
Journal of Nuclear Technology in Applied Science
Journal of Nuclear Technology in Applied Science ›
Print ISSN 2314-8217 · Online ISSN 2314-8209
Submit your paper About the journal
Research Article

Reassessment of Effective Doses for Selected Diagnostic Nuclear Medicine Procedures Using ICRP-Based Models and RADAR-2017

,
Taha M T — Radiation Protection Department, Nuclear Research Center, Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority, Cairo, Egypt
Shahein A Y — Radiation Protection Department, Nuclear Research Center, Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority, Cairo, Egypt
Published 30 Jul 2026 Vol. 14 No. 1 (2026), pp. 37-44 ● Open access
❝ How to cite 🔗 https://doi.org/10.48165/jntas.2026.14.01.05
Formats:Full text (HTML)JATS XMLPDF ● Open access
Download PDF

Abstract

This study presents a standardized reassessment of age-dependent effective doses for commonly performed diagnostic nuclear medicine procedures using the cur- rent International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) dosimetric framework. Unlike previous investigations that focused on individual radiophar- maceuticals, this work applies a unified methodology to multiple commonly used diagnostic agents, enabling consistent comparisons across adult and pediatric ref- erence phantoms. Effective doses were calculated for ⁹⁹mTc-sulfur colloid (liver and spleen imaging), ¹⁸F-FDG (whole-body positron emission tomography), ⁹⁹mTc-MIBI (myocardial perfusion imaging), and ¹³¹I-MIBG (neuroendocrine tu- mor imaging) using biokinetic models and dose coefficients from ICRP Publica- tions 103, 106, and 128 implemented in the SNMMI Nuclear Medicine Radiation Dose Tool (RADAR-2017). Pediatric-administered activities were estimated by linear body-weight scaling based on ORNL/ICRP reference phantoms. Adult effective doses were 2.1 mSv for ⁹⁹mTc-sulfur colloid, 4.8 mSv for ¹⁸F-FDG, 5.8–6.0 mSv for ⁹⁹mTc-MIBI myocardial perfusion imaging, and 7.0 mSv for ¹³¹I- MIBG. Although pediatric-administered activities were substantially reduced, children exhibited higher effective doses per unit of administered activity due to age-dependent anatomical characteristics, reduced photon attenuation, and in- creased tissue radiosensitivity. These findings highlight the importance of age- specific dosimetric assessment and standardized activity selection in diagnostic nuclear medicine. While the present study does not evaluate image quality or clinical performance, it provides a robust dosimetric framework that may support protocol optimization, benchmarking against contemporary reference values, radiation protection practices, and future development of patient-specific imag- ing protocols. Effective dose is presented as a radiation protection quantity for comparing procedures and for supporting optimization strategies, rather than for estimating individual patient risk.

KeywordsEffective doseage- dependenceNuclear Medicine Diagnostic ExamsRADAR-2017
  1. Ali, W., Sulieman, A., Tamam, N., Boshara, N., Aldhebaib, A., Alkhorayef, M., Khandaker, M. U., & Bradley, D. A. (2021). Estimation of patient’s organ doses and staff exposure during bone scan examination. Radiation Physics and Chemistry, 188, 109693. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.radphyschem.2021.109693
  2. Alnaaimi, M. A., Alduaij, M. A., Shenawy, F. A., Algaily, M. M., Mohammedzein, T. S., Alkandri, F. A., Shaban, M. O., & Alenezi, S. A. (2022). National diagnostic reference levels for nuclear medicine in Kuwait. Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology, 50(1), 54–59. https://doi.org/10.2967/jnmt.121.263353
  3. Bailey, D. L., Humm, J. L., Todd-Pokropek, A., & van Aswegen, A. (2014). Nuclear medicine physics: A handbook for teachers and students. International Atomic Energy Agency.
  4. Cherry, S. R., Sorenson, J. A., & Phelps, M. E. (2012). Physics in nuclear medicine (4th ed.). Saunders.
  5. Elhaie, M., Koozari, A., Abedi, I., & Monsef, A. (2024). Advancing oncology through imaging: Evaluating FDG-PET’s role in cancer diagnosis and staging. Frontiers in Biomedical Technologies, 11(4), 662–669.
  6. Fahey, F. H., Goodkind, A. B., Plyku, D., Khamwan, K., O’Reilly, S. E., Cao, X., Frey, E. C., Li, Y., Bolch, W. E., Sgouros, G., & Treves, S. T. (2017). Dose estimation in pediatric nuclear medicine. Seminars in Nuclear Medicine, 47(2), 118–125. https://doi.org/10.1053/j.semnuclmed.2016.10.005
  7. Fahey, F. H., Bom, H. H. S., Chiti, A., Choi, Y. Y., Huang, G., Lassmann, M., Laurin, N., Mut, F., Nunez-Miller, R., O’Keeffe, D., Pradhan, P., Scott, A., Song, S., Soni, N., Uchiyama, M., & Vargas, L. (2016). Standardization of administered activities in pediatric nuclear medicine: A report of the first Nuclear Medicine Global Initiative project, part 2—Current standards and the path toward global standardization. Journal of Nuclear Medicine, 57(7), 1148–1157. https://doi.org/10.2967/jnumed.115.170290
  8. Gelfand, M. J., Parisi, M. T., & Treves, S. T. (2011). Pediatric radiopharmaceutical administered doses: 2010 North American consensus guidelines. Journal of Nuclear Medicine, 52(2), 318–322. https://doi.org/10.2967/jnumed.110.084327
  9. Han, E. Y., Bolch, W. E., & Eckerman, K. F. (2006). Revisions to the ORNL series of adult and pediatric computational phantoms for use with the MIRD schema. Health Physics, 90(4), 337–356. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.HP.0000200714.64588.71
  10. Hussin, D., Said, M. A., Ali, N. S., Tajuddin, A. A., & Zainon, R. (2017). The effective dose result of 18F-FDG PET-CT pediatric patients. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 851(1), 012004. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/851/1/012004
  11. International Atomic Energy Agency. (2014). Radiation protection and safety of radiation sources: International basic safety standards (IAEA Safety Standards Series No. GSR Part 3). International Atomic Energy Agency.
  12. International Commission on Radiological Protection. (2007). The 2007 recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP Publication 103). Annals of the ICRP, 37(2–4).
  13. International Commission on Radiological Protection. (2008). Radiation dose to patients from radiopharmaceuticals: Addendum 3 to ICRP Publication 53 (ICRP Publication 106). Annals of the ICRP, 38(1–2).
  14. International Commission on Radiological Protection. (2015). Radiation dose to patients from radiopharmaceuticals: A compendium of current information related to frequently used substances (ICRP Publication 128). Elsevier.
  15. International Commission on Radiological Protection. (2017). Diagnostic reference levels in medical imaging (ICRP Publication 135). Annals of the ICRP, 46(1), 1–144. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146645317717209
  16. Oliveira, C. M., Sá, L. V. D., Alonso, T. C., & Silva, T. A. D. (2013). Suggestion of a national diagnostic reference level for 18F-FDG/PET scans in adult cancer patients in Brazil. Radiologia Brasileira, 46(5), 284–289. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0100-39842013000500008
  17. Shin, S., Ha, W. H., Lee, C., Kwon, T. E., Lee, H., Chung, Y., Cho, I., & Kim, H. K. (2025). Comparative evaluation of thyroid operational intervention levels depending on age and biokinetic model in nuclear accidents. Nuclear Engineering and Technology, 57(8), 103539. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.net.2025.103539
  18. Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. (2018). Nuclear medicine radiation dose tool (Version 4.10). https://snmmi.org/Patients/Web/Clinical-Practice/Dose-Optimization/Nuclear-Medicine-Radiation-Dose-Tool.aspx
  19. Treves, S. T., Lassmann, M., & EANM/SNMMI Pediatric Dosage Harmonization Working Group. (2014). International guidelines for pediatric radiopharmaceutical administered activities. Journal of Nuclear Medicine, 55(6), 869–870. https://doi.org/10.2967/jnumed.114.141283
  20. Verganelakis, D. A., & Lyra-Georgosopoulou, M. (2022). Nuclear medicine dosimetry in pediatric population. In Dosimetry. IntechOpen. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.105346

Looking up citing articles…

    Creative Commons License

    This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

    Copyright © 2026 Taha M.T., Shahein A.Y