Radiobiological risks in terms of effective dose and organ dose from 18F-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. Multimodality 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 F-18-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 F-18-FDG whole body PET/CT scan should be clarified and carefully weighed. Patient's doses are lower compared with previous studies. (C) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University.