Nationwide survey of nuclear medicine practice and estimation of collective effective dose in Japan.

: For the estimation of collective effective dose from radiopharmaceuticals used in nuclear medicine diagnosis, a national survey was carried out in Japan. The survey contents covered radiopharmaceutical use, sex, age, activity, and so on of each patient in October 1997 and the monthly number of examinations in 1997. The annual number of diagnostic examinations using radiopharmaceuticals was 0.82 million for males and 0.74 million for females. The frequency of examination was about 3% for patients less than 17 years old and about 60% for those more than 60 years old. Effective dose was calculated on the basis of such literature as ICRP publications. The dose used most frequently was 5-6mSv per examination. The collective effective doses from diagnostic nuclear medicine examinations were estimated to be 13100 man .Sv for males and 20200 man .Sv for females.