PEDDOSE.NET

The EU-funded project PEDDOSE.NET ("Dosimetry and Health Effects of Diagnostic Applications of Radiopharmaceuticals with particular emphasis on the use in children and adolescents") summarized and evaluated the current knowledge on the age-dependent dosimetry for radioactive substances currently used for diagnostic imaging procedures in nuclear medicine.

Moreover, it developed recommendations to improve patient healthcare in medical imaging and identified gaps in the knowledge of the behaviour of these substances which need to be bridged by further studies.

Project partners

Coordinated by the European Institute for Biomedical Imaging Research (EIBIR), the project consisted of 5 partners from Austria, Belgium, France, and Germany with leading expertise in nuclear medicine dosimetry. Scientific coordinator was Professor Michael Lassmann from the Department of Nuclear Medicine of the University of Würzburg, Germany. The project was fully supported by the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) which is the scientific body of Nuclear Medicine Professionals in Europe.

The scientific advisory board of the project which represents the scientific societies and industry associations in the field of nuclear medicine ensured that the results of the project were disseminated in a timely manner and at a broad level.

Data collection

The approach to meet these objectives was to review existing data on biokinetics, dosimetry and corresponding dose related risks for diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals in children and adults. In addition, the composition of the consortium ensured that contacts to international bodies such as the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), the Medical Internal Radiation Dose (MIRD) Committee of the Society of Nuclear Medicine or national radiation protection agencies were established in order to obtain up-to-date information on the developments in this field.

Furthermore, data on imaging device-specific parameters and corresponding phantoms were gathered in order to get information on potential dose reductions with emphasis on paediatric nuclear medicine procedures, and on computed tomography absorbed doses in hybrid scanners.

Results and recommendations

The review showed large differences in the quality, reliability and used technology of available literature, very few studies about biokinetics in children were found. Due to their high quality the publications of the ICRP are de facto international standard. The diagnostic reference levels for radiopharmaceuticals differed sometimes by a factor two between EU states.

As a result of the project a set of recommendations was derived. These recommendations will aid the Scientific Community and the European Commission in identifying further areas of research in the field of Nuclear Medicine Dosimetry and Patient Radiation Protection. It might also give guidance to radiopharmaceutical industry on how to improve the clinical trials and the corresponding documentation needed for obtaining marketing authorization for new compounds.

Dissemination

The dissemination of results was coordinated by European Institute for Biomedical Imaging Research (EIBIR). During two major European congresses (ECR 2011, EANM 2011) the results of the project were presented in separate pre-congress workshops.

In addition, the major publication "Biokinetics and dosimetry of commonly used radiopharmaceuticals in diagnostic nuclear medicine – a review" (Eberlein et al, Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imag 2011) summarizes the findings of the consortium on behalf of diagnostic nuclear medicine dosimetry. Moreover the EU published a final report.