Effective radiation doses in pediatric PET/CT examinations: Pilot study

The young are significantly more sensitive to radiation than adults, by up to 3 times, due to their rapidly dividing cells and anticipation of a relatively longer lifespan. Positron emission tomography (PET)/Computed tomography (CT) plays a major role in the diagnosis of many clinical disorders, albeit with patients being subject to enhanced radiogenic risk from ionizing radiation. The aims of present research are to assess the effective doses during pediatric PET/CT examination using F-18-Sodium fluoride (F-18-NaF) and F-18-Fluorodeoxy-D-glucose (F-18-FDG) radiotracers. A total of 122 pediatric patients were examined, 78% (95 patients) and 22% (27 patients) undergoing F-18-FDG and F-18-NaF studies, respectively. The patients were scanned using two General Electric (GE) Discovery 710 128 slice PET/CT facilities installed in two tertiary hospitals. Patients were categorized into three age groups: <= 5 years, 6 - <= 10 years and 11 - <= 15 years. Per procedure, the mean cumulative effective doses (in mSv) for F-18-FDG group were 12.1, 10.7 and 12.1 for the three respective age groups. Moreover, the mean cumulative effective doses (in mSv) for F-18-NaF group were 6.8, 6.4 and 7.1 for the same three respective age groups. The cumulative effective doses have been found to be comparable with previous studies.