Radiation exposure from diagnostic nuclear medicine examinations in Golestan province

Introduction: The aim of present study was to estimate effective dose from most common procedures performed in nuclear medicine departments of Golestan province. Methods: Data of nuclear medicine procedures performed in 2 nuclear medicine departments in Golestan province were collected during 4 years. Effective dose, collective effective dose and effective dose per examination were calculated using standard dosimetry tables. Results: Based on the data of this study, results of 10437 nuclear medicine procedures performed during 4 years have lead to 3.97 mSv as average effective dose per examination and 10.37 human-Sv as mean collective effective dose. It was also revealed that Tc-99m was the main source of effective dose (98.3%), bone scan was the most common procedure (25.9%) and cardiac scan (MIBI-rest) has the highest collective effective dose (33.5%) during 4 years. Conclusion: Beside the cardiac scan which was the most common nuclear medicine procedure and the main contributor of effective dose in patients, due to geographical condition of the northeast of Iran, bone scan was the highest performed nuclear medicine examination in the Golestan province.