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Nuclear medicine practice in Japan: a report of the eighth nationwide survey in 2017

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Abstract

Objective

Subcommittee on Survey of Nuclear Medicine Practice in Japan has performed a nationwide survey of nuclear medicine practice every 5 years since 1982 to survey contemporary nuclear medicine practice and its changes over the years.

Methods

The subcommittee sent questionnaires, including the number and category of examinations as well as the kind and dose of the radiopharmaceuticals during the 30 days of June 2017, to all nuclear medicine institutes. The total numbers for the year 2017 were then estimated.

Results

A total of 1132 institutes responded to the survey, including 351 PET centers. The recovery rate was 90.6%. The number of gamma cameras installed was 1332 in total, with 7.0% decrease in 5 years. Dual-head cameras and hybrid SPECT/CT scanners accounted for 88.2 and 23.6%, respectively. The number of single-photon tracer studies in 2017 was 1.08 million which means a decrease in 5.7% in 5 years and 23.6% in 10 years. All but neurotransmitter system, sentinel lymph node, and liver scintigraphy decreased. Bone scintigraphy was a leading examination (32.3%), followed by myocardial scintigraphy (24.1%) and cerebral perfusion study (18.0%) in order. SPECT studies showed an increase from 47.2% to 63.5%. PET centers have also increased from 295 to 389, as compared to the last survey. The 112 PET centers have installed one or two in-house cyclotrons. PET studies showed 24.5% increase in 5 years, with oncology accounting for 88.9%. 18F-FDG accounted for 98.2% (630,570 examinations). PET examinations using 11C-methionine have decreased, with 2440 examinations in 2017. PET examinations using 13N-NH3 have been increasing, with 2363 examinations in 2017. The number of PET studies using 11C-PIB was 904. 131I-radioiodine targeted therapies showed an increase in 5 years (23.1%), including 4487 patients for thyroid cancer. Out-patient thyroid bed ablation therapy with 1,110 MBq of 131I accounted for 36.6% of cancer patients. The number of admission rooms increased from 135 to 157 in 5 years. The number of 223Ra targeted therapies for castration-resistant metastatic prostate cancer was 1194 patients.

Conclusions

Single-photon examinations showed a continuous tendency toward a decline in the survey. In contrast, the number of hybrid SPECT/CT scanner examinations has increased. PET/CT study and radionuclide targeted therapy have steadily increased.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the institutes all over Japan for answering the questionnaires and the staff at JRIA for analyzing these data and preparing the manuscript. The content of this article was published in Radioisotopes 2018; 67:339–387 in Japanese. The second publication of the material in this article in English was approved by the editorial boards of Radioisotopes and Annals of Nuclear Medicine.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Kagawa University, 1750-1 Ikenobe, Miki-cho, Kita-gun, Kagawa, 761-0793, Japan

    Yoshihiro Nishiyama

  2. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Institute of Medical, Pharmaceutical and Health Sciences, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan

    Seigo Kinuya

  3. Department of Radiology, National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, Obu, Japan

    Takashi Kato

  4. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Kanazawa University Hospital, Kanazawa, Japan

    Daiki Kayano

  5. Department of Health Informatics, Kawasaki University of Medical Welfare, Kurashiki, Japan

    Shuhei Sato

  6. Division of Cyclotron Nuclear Medicine, Cyclotron and Radioisotope Center, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

    Manabu Tashiro

  7. Department of Radiology, Osaka University Hospital, Suita, Japan

    Mitsuaki Tatsumi

  8. Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, Dokkyo Medical University, Mibu-machi, Japan

    Teisuke Hashimoto

  9. Department of Clinical Radiology, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

    Shingo Baba

  10. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan

    Kenji Hirata

  11. Department of Radiology, Tokyo Medical University, Shinjuku, Japan

    Mana Yoshimura

  12. Department of Radiological Technology, Kanazawa University Hospital, Kanazawa, Japan

    Hiroto Yoneyama

Authors
  1. Yoshihiro Nishiyama
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  2. Seigo Kinuya
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  3. Takashi Kato
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  4. Daiki Kayano
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  5. Shuhei Sato
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  7. Mitsuaki Tatsumi
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  8. Teisuke Hashimoto
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  9. Shingo Baba
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  10. Kenji Hirata
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  11. Mana Yoshimura
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  12. Hiroto Yoneyama
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Correspondence to Yoshihiro Nishiyama.

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Nishiyama, Y., Kinuya, S., Kato, T. et al. Nuclear medicine practice in Japan: a report of the eighth nationwide survey in 2017. Ann Nucl Med 33, 725–732 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12149-019-01382-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12149-019-01382-5

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