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The introduction in Cuba of imaging hybrid systems in nuclear medicine has become a challenge for medical physicist in order to guaranty the patient´s radiation safety and proper dose estimation. The aim of this study was to retrospectively evaluate the CT radiation doses for studies performed with a SPECT/CT hybrid system (SPECT/CT). A MATLAB “in house” made tool was tested and validated for this purpose. 62 patients with CT studies were manually and automatically reviewed; the tool could visualize and properly recover the patient personal information, CT protocol and dose related data from the DICOM header in the SPECT/CT study file. The CT volume dose index (CTDIvol) parameter was used for calculating the CT dose-length product (DPL) and the effective doses (E). The CT radiation dose preliminary results were on the range of those reported by others authors for the typical studies, demonstrating the efficacy of the tool developed and the CT dose assessment method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work summarizes the results of the national project Comprehensive quality improvement in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with cancer and other diseases, incorporating and strengthening radioguided surgery techniques. This project had the objective of raising the quality in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with cancer and other diseases, by introducing, expanding and optimizing the clinical use of radioguided surgery in Cuba. First, the technique was started in the “Hermanos Ameijeiras” hospitals, the National Institute of Oncology and Radiobiology and the Center for Medical Surgical Research, with the protocolized follow-up and the analysis of the clinical impact, the national guidelines were drawn up and the accreditation proceeded. of courses and workshops for the training of human resources, guaranteeing sustainability and extension to other hospitals. As main results, in February 2020, 570 breasts had been operated with this technique, with a rate between 65-70 % of unnecessary axillary emptyings avoided, noting the improvement in staging and diagnostic precision the decrease in surgical time per patient in 30 %, lower costs of surgery, fewer associated complications and shorter hospital stays due to minimally invasive surgery and a significant improvement in the quality of life of patients. Conclusions: radioguided surgery was introduced and consolidated as an oncological surgical optimization method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main contributions in the applications of nuclear sciences and technologies to the diagnosis and treatment of neoplasic diseases, obtained by medical physicists from various Havana institutions are summarized. Additionally, the main activities to guarantee the training and accreditation of medical physicists for radiodiagnosis, nuclear medicine, radiotherapy and radiation protection services in Havana hospital network is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2013, the European Association of Nuclear Medicine Dosimetry Committee recommends a "Standard Operational Procedures for Hyperthyroidism Pre-Therapeutic Dosimetry" based on the assessment of the individual 131I uptake and kinetics. To estimate the 3D dose delivery deviations from prescribed dose during patient specific application of this SOP, a computer Matlab application was developed and verified. It was design to execute: radiopharmaceutical curve fitting, cumulated activity calculations, functional thyroid mass estimation, obtain the therapeutic planning activity to warranty the prescribed dose and produce the 3D planning dose map and related dosimetry parameters. 6 patients with 150-400Gy prescribed dose data planning (average 241,67Gy) were analysed using the developed application. The developed system was verify successfully using a test image phantom and 6 known pharmacokinetics data. The tridimensional thyroid volume cumulated activity and dose distributions were heterogeneous. 3D dose distribution showed standard deviations between 18.01- 27.08 % of prescribed dose. The differences between maximum and minimum dose value per voxel/ MBq were 74-129%. According to the result, between 50,2 % and 71,4 % of patient's thyroid will be treat with a dose of DP±20 % of planned dose, the rest will be overdose or sub dose. Conclusions: the 3D treatment planning dose distribution were completely no-homogenous, the significant difference observed should be study in the future more deeply in order to optimized the hyperthyroidism iodine treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]