“What rules do you have to follow during nuclear medicine testing?”

There are many rules that apply to nuclear medicine, including rules about checking in isotopes, verifying that there are no detectable leaks of the isotopes, keeping track of short or long half-life sources used for instrument calibration, wearing badges to measure radiation exposure of involved staff who interact with the isotopes, informing patients of their isotope dose and how long it will remain in the body and whether any precautions are necessary to protect others who may come in contact with them. In general we cannot inject pregnant patients or those breast feeding with any isotopes but there are infrequent exceptions when procedures may be essential to determine treatments for dangerously ill patients. We follow a principle in using radioisotopes for diagnosis and therapy which is abbreviated ALARA, which stands for "As Low As Reasonably Achievable." There are other rules concerning maintaining education of the staff in the areas in which they are practicing. Some states directly regulate Nuclear Medicine Practices and other states follow Federal guidelines, so the rules differ somewhat from state to state in the U.S., but they are similar and so are most of the international regulations. In order to obtain Certification by the American College of Radiology, typical scans are submitted to ACR experts to verify that the interpreting physician's scan readings are correct and that the equipment is performing according to manufacturer's specifications. We have to identify which technologists gave injections of isotopes and verify that the patient's were informed about the procedures and agreed to them before they were performed. We are only allowed to administer FDA-approved radiopharmaceuticals in the U.S. Also, isotopes must be kept in a secure location with appropriate labels. We must have disaster plans to deal with potential theft of isotopes. Inspectors are allowed to come and check at announced or unannounced times to insure adherence to the regulations. Practitioners of nuclear medicine also have to keep up to date licenses and pay fees for those licenses. In summary, there are many rules, but this is a summary providing an outline of most of the main ones.