Radiopharmaceutical extravasations have been present since the beginning of nuclear medicine. While there has been a significant increase in interest over the past five years regarding these extravasations, there is minimal understanding of the issue. Furthermore, there is little published information on radiopharmaceutical extravasations compared to chemotherapy, contrast CT, and other pharmaceutical extravasations. As the energy emissions of routinely administered diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals have and continue to evolve in nuclear medicine over the past five decades and as more and more radiotherapeutics enter the market, there is a need educate all stakeholders on this important topic.
Most nuclear medicine facilities do not proactively monitor the quality of their radiopharmaceutical administrations. Because radiopharmaceutical administrations usually involve small volumes and do not cause a burning sensation and because injections sites are not routinely included in the imaging field of view, many extravasations can go unnoticed. Since large diagnostic radiopharmaceutical extravasations and most radiotherapeutic extravasations can result in high absorbed doses to healthy tissue and can compromise the intended nuclear medicine procedure, our goal is to increase awareness of this topic. As nuclear medicine facilities increase their understanding of this pernicious administration error and take appropriate steps to prevent extravasations, patient care will improve.
We welcome potential authors to focus on sub-topics that include, but are not limited to,
- Patient and family member perspective on radiopharmaceutical extravasations
- Best practice techniques and tools for vascular access
- Impact of diagnostic radiopharmaceutical extravasations on image quantification
- Impact of diagnostic radiopharmaceutical extravasations on image quality
- Reimaging decision making process after large radiopharmaceutical extravasations
- Impact of radiotherapy extravasations
- Impact of radiopharmaceutical extravasations on preclinical research
- Characterizing radiopharmaceutical extravasations
- The role of the Radiation Safety Officer in addressing radiopharmaceutical extravasations
- Ionizing radiation and healthy tissue
- Quality Improvement efforts to reduce extravasations
- Can active monitoring reduce radiopharmaceutical extravasation rates?
- The experience of a provider addressing radiopharmaceutical extravasations
- The perspective of the payor on radiopharmaceutical extravasations
- The perspective of the regulator on radiopharmaceutical extravasations
This Research Topic has been kindly sponsored by
AltusCampus Inc We would like to acknowledge Ronald Keith Lattanze as the Topic Coordinator of this Research Topic. Mr. Lattanze has co-authored several papers on radiopharmaceutical extravasations.
We also acknowledge the funding of the manuscripts published in this Research Topic by Altus Campus Inc. We hereby state publicly that Altus Campus Inc has had no editorial input in articles included in this Research Topic, thus ensuring that all aspects of this Research Topic are evaluated objectively, and unbiased by any specific policy or opinion of Altus Campus Inc.