Routine quality control recommendations for nuclear medicine instrumentation

Keywords Qualitycontrol.Qualityassurance.Nuclearmedicineinstrumentation.Gammacamera.SPECT.PET.CT.Radionuclidecalibrator.Thyroiduptakeprobe.Nonimagingintraoperativeprobe.Gammacountingsystem.Radiationmonitors.PreclinicalPETIntroductionThese recommendations cover routine quality control (QC)of instrumentation used within a nuclear medicine depart-ment. Routine QC testing starts after installation of theinstrument, and after acceptance testing, and continues on aregular basis throughout its lifetime. Additional periodictests may be carried out to provide more in-depth testing.Recommendations for acceptance testing are covered in aseparate document. These recommendations must be con-sideredinthelightofanynationalguidelinesandlegislation,which must be followed. The recommendations cover thetypes of tests to be performed, and suggested frequencies,but they do not specify the protocols to be followed, whichare available from other reference sources quoted.Acceptance and reference testsAfter installation, and before it is put into clinical use, anuclear medicine instrument must undergo thorough andcareful acceptance testing, the aim being to verify that theinstrument performs according to its specifications and itsclinical purpose. Each instrument is supplied with a set ofbasic specifications. These have been produced by themanufacturer according to standard test procedures, whichshould be traceable to standard protocols, such as theNEMA and IEC performance standards [1–4, 11, 17, 30,37]. By following such standard protocols in the clinicalsetting, with support from the vendor for supplyingphantoms and software where necessary, specificationscan be verified and baseline performance data created.Additional tests are usually also needed in order to more