Task Group 130
Doses from Diagnostic Radiopharmaceuticals During Pregnancy and Breastfeeding

Under Committee 2 and Committee 3

Mandate

The objective of the Task Group is to develop dose coefficients after administration of radiopharmaceuticals in diagnostic nuclear medicine during pregnancy and breastfeeding, building on the work of Task Group 36.

The main work of the TG is to address the radiation exposure of embryos/fetuses of pregnant patients and infants of breastfeeding patients in diagnostic nuclear medicine and to develop fetal and paediatric dose coefficients for radiopharmaceuticals used for these patient groups.

For the radiation exposure of breastfed infants up to age 2 years, the internal exposure due to secretion of radionuclides into the breast milk as well as the external irradiation from radionuclides in the breasts and whole body of the breastfeeding patient will be considered.

The biokinetic models presented in the revision of Publication 128 will be used as a starting point and properly modified to account for the changes occurring during pregnancy and breastfeeding, including transfer of material from the maternal to the fetal tissues.

The fetal and paediatric dose coefficients will be calculated using the ICRP paediatric reference computational models as well as the pregnant and fetal phantoms developed by ICRP Task Groups 96 and 103.

In parallel to this work, a continuous literature search needs to be conducted on the availability of recent biokinetic and dosimetric information for diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals in order to revise the models and dose coefficients for existing radiopharmaceuticals and produce models for new diagnostic substances which have entered the market in the meanwhile.

For the calculation of dose coefficients for pregnant patients, embryos, fetuses, and breastfed infants the computer code IDAC (currently vers. 2.1) will be used and will be continuously updated: The new dosimetric and biokinetic models will be implemented into this code, and a quality assurance procedure with other codes will be organised.

Deliverables

• The Task Group will develop a report for publication in Annals of the ICRP. The ICRP publication will cover the radiation dose to embryos, fetuses after administration of radiopharmaceuticals to the pregnant patient; the radiation dose to breastfed infants after administration of radiopharmaceuticals to the breastfeeding patient;
• Electronic radiopharmaceutical dose viewer, a tool to display radiation doses as produced by the Task Group, (analogous to TG36) for different radiopharmaceuticals and administered activity;
• Continuous publication of models and dose coefficients for new radiopharmaceuticals on the website and in ad-hoc addenda.
• In addition, the Task Group will develop materials suitable for ICRPædia in collaboration with the Scientific Secretariat.

Sigrid Leide-Svegborn (Co-Chair), Skane University Hospital Malmö, Sweden

Jin Chul Paeng (Co-Chair), Seoul National University Hospital, Korea

Martin Andersson (Member), Gothenburg University , Sweden