Jon Baldwin

¹⁸F-FDG PET and PET/CT patient preparation: a review of the literature.

For many types of cancer, 18F-FDG PET/CT is commonly used in evaluation and management, including tumor diagnosis, staging, restaging, treatment monitoring, and radiation therapy planning. Meticulous patient preparation including restrictions of diet and activity and management of blood glucose levels in diabetic patients, as well as an awareness of the effect of medications and environmental conditions, plays an important role toward obtaining good-quality images, which are essential for accurate interpretation. Protocol guidelines for performing PET/CT have been proposed by various societies and groups, including the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, the European Association of Nuclear Medicine, the American College of Radiology, and the National Cancer Institute. Standardization of the PET/CT procedure is necessary to enable use of metabolic parameters as imaging biomarkers in routine clinical decision making and to ensure reproducibility and allow comparison examinations across different sites. Though several published articles, including various society guidelines, have addressed the relevant patient preparation variables individually, we believe there is need for further clarification. This article summarizes existing data and proposes a standard patient preparation protocol.

Pediatric Skeletal Scintigraphy: What a General Radiologist Needs to Know

Pediatric skeletal scintigraphy is a noninvasive imaging modality which aids in functional as well as anatomic evaluation of bone. Bone scintigraphy plays a major role in diagnosis and evaluation of various benign, primary malignant and metastatic pediatric bone pathologies. The advantage of bone scan is that it becomes positive well before the bone pathology is evident on radiographs and specifically the entire skeleton can be imaged in a single examination. Pediatric bone scintigraphy evaluation can be challenging to the general radiologist not routinely exposed to the study, as the growing skeleton is quite different from a mature skeleton especially at or near the growth plates. Though nonspecific, bone scintigraphy is a very sensitive modality. Correlation with a good history and other imaging modalities like radiographs, computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging helps in diagnosis.

All You Need to Know as an Authorized User

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this article is to review the training requirements for practicing nuclear radiology, the scope of licensing, how to start a new practice, and the key concepts an authorized user needs to know for responsible use of radiopharmaceuticals. CONCLUSION Physicians responsible for the daily operations of nuclear medicine clinics often find the regulations concerning the safe handling and administration of radiopharmaceuticals daunting. Even experienced authorized users have concerns about handling many new therapeutic agents. Those studying for certifying and subspecialty examinations or for maintenance of certification for the American Board of Nuclear Medicine and the American Board of Radiology must clearly understand the overall process for becoming an authorized user.