Clinical Hybrid Imaging: Radiation Issues

Webinar

Time: December 10, 2018 at 15:00 CET
Presenters: I. Rausch, K. Riklund
Recording: click here

This webinar on Clinical Hybrid Imaging: Radiation Issues was organised by EuroSafe Imaging together with the IAEA Radiation Protection of Patients (RPOP) Unit and the European Society for Hybrid, Molecular and Translational Imaging (ESHIMT).

About the webinar:

Nuclear medicine imaging techniques and hybrid imaging devices (like SPECT/CT and PET/CT) are key elements of medical imaging today. The combination of a nuclear medicine imaging technique and an anatomical imaging modality, in particular, has been demonstrated to provide clinical value in patients with a range of benign and malignant diseases.

Imaging techniques like CT and nuclear medicine methods are based on the use of ionising radiation. In the case of CT, a X-ray transmission source rotates around the patient while a detector array on the opposite site of the patient acquires the range of photons transmitted through the body of the patient. In nuclear medicine examinations, patients are injected with a given amount of a radiotracer, a biomolecule labeled with a radioactive isotope, specific to the purpose of the functional, nuclear medicine examination. The emitted radiation from inside the patient can be measured, and from this data, the tracer distribution can be reconstructed.

In both, CT and nuclear medicine examinations, radiation energy is deposited in the body of the patients by the fractions of photons absorbed within the body tissues and by scattered photons. In combined imaging, patient exposure results from the added contributions from both CT and nuclear medicine examination.

Exposure to ionising radiation in a quantity as used in medical imaging bears the risk of stochastic effects like radiation induced cancer. Thus, these risks need to be taken into account when performing an examination and the rational for a radiation exposure should be based on the ALARA (as low as reasonably achievable) principle.

Learning objectives:

  • To understand where the dose is coming from in hybrid imaging examinations.
  • To understand the difference between different dose measures.
  • To understand the meaning of “risk” associated with radiation exposure from hybrid imaging.

 

Biographies:

Ivo Rausch, PhD, studied Technical Physics at the University of Technology Vienna with a focus on radiation protection and nuclear physics and graduated in 2011. He joined the Division of Nuclear Medicine, Medical University of Vienna as a scientific employee in 2013.  Thereafter, I. Rausch joined the Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering (CMPBMT), where he also accomplished the PhD program in Medical Physics. Further, he completed the university course “Medical Physics”, which is compliant with the EFOMP and EU guidelines for the education of medical physics experts.

Today, he is a post doc researcher in the Quantitative Imaging and Medical Physics group at the CMPBMT. His interests relate to quantitative hybrid imaging in nuclear medicine with a special focus on PET/MRI and PET/CT. In close collaboration with the Division of Nuclear Medicine, he is engaged in several (clinical) studies and educational activities. He is a member of the working group “Medical Physics and Radiation Protection” of the Austrian Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (OGNMB), member of the ESHIMT research committee and board member of the Austrian Society of Radiation Protection in Medicine (VSMÖ).

Katrine Riklund is full professor, consultant in diagnostic radiology and pro-vice-chancellor of Umeå University. Prior to her current positions, she headed both the Clinical Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at Umeå University Hospital and served as deputy dean of the medical faculty between 2008 and 2011. She graduated at Umeå University in 1988, and licensed in radiology and nuclear medicine in 1994 and 1997, respectively. Prof. Riklund started her work in translational research between immunology and nuclear medicine by developing and evaluating monoclonal antibodies in the diagnosis and treatment of gynaecological cancers. She soon became interested in hybrid imaging, particularly to carry out research in cognition, neurodegeneration and movement disorders. She also works in prostate and colorectal cancer imaging research. She has served in many leadership roles for the European Society of Radiology (ESR) since 2009, and is the past-president of the European Society for Hybrid, Molecular and Translational Imaging (ESHIMT). She was the president of the Swedish Society of Radiology and the Swedish Society of Nuclear Medicine. She is also chairperson of the Centre for Medical Image Science and Visualisation at Linköping University, the Centre for Functional Brain Imaging and Wallenberg Centre for Molecular Medicine as well as for the Umeå Centre for Functional Brain Imaging at Umeå University, Sweden.

About the ESHIMT:

ESHIMT is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and coordinating the scientific, educational and professional activities of hybrid imaging, imaging of tissue function, and imaging at cellular and molecular levels. Its goal is to improve hybrid imaging modalities and to foster their translation into routine clinical practice as well as to foster the education and research thereof.