Population Characteristics and Absorbed Dose to the Population From Nuclear Medicine

Abstract

Those in the U.S. population who receive nuclear medicine examinations have been characterized by age and sex. Males received 42% of examinations while females received 58%. More than one-third of the examinations were done on persons older than 64 y of age and more than two-thirds on patients older than 45 y of age. The per caput effective dose equivalent from nuclear medicine procedures in 1982 was 140 muSv (14 mrem); whereas, the per caput age-specific effective dose equivalent to the U.S. population was 50 muSv (5.9 mrem). These can be compared with 2 mSv (200 mrem) from natural background.