Adverse Reactions to Radiopharmaceuticals (ARRP): Particularly To Technetium Radiopharmaceuticals

Radiopharmaceuticals are radioactive compounds that are prepared by a radiopharmasist and used in Nuclear Medicine departments for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes of human diseases. They are generally used i.v. so they have to be sterile and apyrogenic like other parenteral drugs. Effecting in a correct way and localising in the desired tissue with a sufficient amount, physicians and Nuclear Medicine staff have to be aware of the adverse reactions to radiopharmaceuticals (ARRP) for the safety point of view. ARRPs are the clinical symptoms that are unexpected or unusual and undesirable. ARRPs are generally mild, reversible, not so much serious, and generally do not need any medical treatment. Reporting ARRPs by fulfilling the ARRP reporting and monitoring forms are critical for informing the physicians and the authorities about the problems about that radiopharmaceutical like drug interactions, altered biodistribution, wrong injection site or route and the in vivo stability of that radiopharmaceutical and by this way wrong diagnosing the disease may be prevented. But there are some defects in fulfilling the adverse reaction reporting forms in Turkey like the other countries.