Role of the Radionuclide Metrology in Nuclear Medicine

Nuclear medicine practices rely on the use of radiopharmaceuticals, for diagnosis and therapy purposes. Their use is based on the incorporation in the human body through a medical procedure: intravenous injection, ingestion, or inhalation. The quality of the administration procedure is tightly influenced by the following determining factors: the administration of the right activity to the patient, such as prescribed by the medical doctor, and the quality of the radiopharmaceutical product. The full control of these parameters is obtained by using high quality measurement equipment and following well established procedures for the measurement and application of the radiopharmaceutical. The radiopharmacy units, the measurement equipment providers and the nuclear medicine units can fulfill these requirements only by using calibrated instrumentation and following validated measurement methods. The technical support is offered by the Radionuclide Metrology Laboratories (RML) which can assure the continuity of the metrological traceability chain of measurement up to the highest, primary radioactivity standards. The metrological traceability and its chain are defined by the document: “BIPM, JCGM 200:2008 – International vocabulary of metrology – Basic and general concepts and associated terms (VIM)”, as: “Metrological traceability – property of a measurement result whereby the result can be related to a reference through a documented unbroken chain of calibrations, each contributing to the measurement uncertainty” “Metrological traceability chain – sequence of measurement standards and calibrations that is used to relate a measurement result to a reference” From these definitions one can deduce the role of the RMLs: to develop activity standards, to validate them in relation with the International System of Units (SI) and to disseminate them as radioactive standard sources and solutions, or calibration services to the implied entities. This chapter of the book presents the following aspects: Measurement requirements in radiopharmacy, in measurement instrument calibration process, and in nuclear medicine units; Role of the Radionuclide Metrology Laboratory in the practical accomplishment of these requirements

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