Abstract
The practitioner of pediatric nuclear medicine should have some knowledge of radiation effects and the potential hazards that may result from low-level radiation exposures. There are several reasons such information is essential. First, specialists should ensure that the exposure of patients to radiation from diagnostic or therapeutic procedures is not excessive. Although all current radiopharmaceuticals deliver radiation doses within a readily acceptable range, such was not the case 40 years ago when the radionuclides employed were generally longer-lived and emitted significant particulate radiation, e.g., 131I and 87mSr. As a result, before 1970 at Boston Children’s Hospital, radionuclides were administered only to patients with advanced neoplastic diseases. Today, as new agents are introduced, it is imperative to understand the details of their distribution and the resulting radiation doses delivered to various organs. Moreover, for those who participate in clinical trials with new radiolabeled agents, an estimation of the absorbed radiation dose is required by institutional review boards, as is some assessment of the potential hazard.
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Adelstein, S.J. (2014). Radiation Risk. In: Treves, S. (eds) Pediatric Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9551-2_30
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9551-2_30
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