The aim of this work was to develop a method to manufacture oncological phantoms for quantitation purposes in 18F-FDG PET and DW-MRI studies. Radioactive and diffusion materials were prepared using a mixture of agarose and sucrose radioactive gels. T2 relaxation and diffusion properties of gels at different sucrose concentrations were evaluated. Realistic oncological lesions were created using 3D-printed plastic molds filled with the gel mixture. Once solidified, gels were extracted from molds and immersed in a low-radioactivity gel simulating normal background tissue. A breast cancer phantom was manufactured using the proposed method as an exploratory feasibility study, including several realistic oncological configurations in terms of both radioactivity and diffusion. The phantom was acquired in PET with 18F-FDG, immediately after solidification, and in DW-MRI the following day. Functional volumes characterizing the simulated BC lesions were segmented from PET and DW-MRI images. Measured radioactive uptake and ADC values were compared with gold standards. Phantom preparation was straightforward, and the time schedule was compatible with both PET and MRI measurements. Lesions appeared on 18F-FDG PET and DW-MRI images as expected, without visible artifacts. Lesion functional parameters revealed the phantom's potential for validating quantification methods, in particular for new generation hybrid PET-MRI systems.
The evaluation of radiation burden in vivo is crucial in modern radiology as stated also in the European Directive 2013/59/Euratom—Basic Safety Standard. Although radiation dose monitoring can impact the justification and optimization of radiological procedure, as well as effective patient communication, standardization of radiation monitoring software is far to be achieved. Toward this goal, the Italian Association of Medical Physics (AIFM) published a report describing the state of the art and standard guidelines in radiation dose monitoring system quality assurance. This article reports the AIFM statement about radiation dose monitoring systems (RDMSs) summarizing the different critical points of the systems related to Medical Physicist Expert (MPE) activities before, during, and after their clinical implementation. In particular, the article describes the general aspects of radiation dose data management, radiation dose monitoring systems, data integrity, and data responsibilities. Furthermore, the acceptance tests that need to be implemented and the most relevant dosimetric data for each radiological modalities are reported under the MPE responsibility.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.