Article

Establishing diagnostic reference levels for scintigraphy exams at the Mohammed VI University Hospital Centre in Marrakech-Morocco

¹ Higher Institute of Nursing Professions and Health Technics, Marrakech, Morocco
² Environmental, Ecological and Agro-Industrial Engineering Laboratory, University Sultan Moulay Sliman, Béni Mellal, Morocco
³ Sultan Moulay Sliman University, Faculty of Sciences and Techniques, Department of Physics (LPM), B.P.523, 23000 Béni Mellal, Morocco

^* e-mail: khajmi.hassan@gmail.com

Received: 26 August 2024
Accepted: 8 December 2024

Abstract

This work aims to determine the local diagnostic reference levels (LDRL) for scintigraphy exams (SE) in the nuclear medicine (NM) department of the Oncology and Haematology Hospital, Mohammed VI University Hospital Centre of Marrakech region of Morocco (OHH, Med VI UHC-MM). The LDRLs calculations were based on the most recent recommendations from the ICRP in 2023. We compared the local DRL with the published literature. The methodology applied consisted of using data recorded in the files of patients who had undergone scintigraphy exams in our nuclear medicine department during the period 2021–2023. Typical LDRLs values, based on the median of the distribution of administered activity (MBq) for exams like bone (HMDP-^99mTc), thyroid (^99mTc), parathyroid (Sestamibi-^99mTc/^99mTc), renal (DMSA-^99mTc), octreoscan (Tectrotyd-^99mTc), pulmonary (Pulmocis-^99mTc), cardiac (Sestamibi-^99mTc) (stress/rest), and cerebral (HMPAO-^99mTc) were 666 MBq, 144 MBq, 86 MBq/666 MBq, 136 MBq, 555 MBq, 144 MBq, 333 MBq/1073 MBq, and 703 MBq, respectively. In general, the results showed that the LDRLs were higher than the national diagnostic reference levels (NDRL) observed in France in 2021 and lower than those observed in South Korea in 2019, Croatia in 2020, and Switzerland in 2023.