An investigation performed between 2003 and 2005 in sixteen selected public and private institutions in Northeast, Southeast and South geographical regions of Brazil evaluated average organ doses and effective doses in 2,411 pediatric patients due to diagnostic procedures with radiopharmaceuticals. For 1 year, effective doses were greater than literature. For 5 years, differences were noticed between present work and literature for bone scintigraphy, thyroid scintigraphy and 67Ga citrate scintigraphy. These differences may be attributed to the uncertainties in internal dose calculations. High absorved doses in bone surfaces of children due to 67Ga citrate and bone scintigraphy should be evaluated accordingly. Current protocols used recommend standardized mean activities per mean weight for all ages. However, it was observed that the activities were not standardized and were higher for children with younger ages. Future studies are needed for optimising activities of radiopharmaceuticals to these patients in the country.
pediatrics; oncology; dosimetry; radiopharmaceuticals; nuclear medicine; radiation protection
