Radiobiological risks in terms of effective dose and organ dose from (18)F-FDG whole-body PET/CT procedures

INTRODUCTION: Integrated Positron Emission Tomography (PET) with Computerized tomography (CT) (PET/CT) are widely used to diagnose, stage and track human diseases during whole body scanning. Multi-modality imaging is an interesting area of research that aims at acquiring united morphological-functional image information for accurate diagnosing and staging of the disease. However, PET/CT procedure accompanied with high radiation dose from CT and administered radioactivity. The aim of the present study was to estimate the patients’ dose from (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose imaging (18F-FDG) hybrid PET/CT whole body scan. MATERIALS AND METHODS: RADAR (Radiation Dose Assessment Resource) software was used to estimate the effective dose for 156 patients (110 (70.5%)) males and 46 (39.5%) female) examined using Discovery PET/CT 710, GE Medical Systems installed at Kuwait Cancer Control Center (KCCC). RESULTS: The effective dose results presented in this PET/CT study ranged from (1.56–9.94 mSv). The effective dose was calculated to be 3.88 mSv in females and 3.71 mSv in males. The overall breast (female), lung, liver, kidney and thyroid were 7.4, 7.2, 5.2, 4, 3 and 2.9, respectively. For females, the body mass index (BMI) was 28.49 kg/m(2) and for males it was 26.50 kg/m(2) which showed overweight values for both genders. Conclusions: The findings indicate that the effective dose of 18F-FDG in both male and female patients was not substantially different. The study suggested that the risk–benefit proportions of any (18)F-FDG whole body PET/CT scan should be clarified and carefully weighed. Patient’s doses are lower compared with previous studies.