MIRD Pamphlet No. 21: A Generalized Schema for Radiopharmaceutical Dosimetry—Standardization of Nomenclature
Open accessAbstract
The internal dosimetry schema of the Medical Internal Radiation Dose (MIRD) Committee of the Society of Nuclear Medicine has provided a broad framework for assessment of the absorbed dose to whole organs, tissue subregions, voxelized tissue structures, and individual cellular compartments for use in both diagnostic and therapeutic nuclear medicine. The schema was originally published in 1968, revised in 1976, and republished in didactic form with comprehensive examples as the MIRD primer in 1988 and 1991. The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) is an organization that also supplies dosimetric models and technical data, for use in providing recommendations for limits on ionizing radiation exposure to workers and members of the general public. The ICRP has developed a dosimetry schema similar to that of the MIRD Committee but has used different terminology and symbols for fundamental quantities such as the absorbed fraction, specific absorbed fraction, and various dose coefficients. The MIRD Committee objectives for this pamphlet are 3-fold: to restate its schema for assessment of absorbed dose in a manner consistent with the needs of both the nuclear medicine and the radiation protection communities, with the goal of standardizing nomenclature; to formally adopt the dosimetry quantities equivalent dose and effective dose for use in comparative evaluations of potential risks of radiation-induced stochastic effects to patients after nuclear medicine procedures; and to discuss the need to identify dosimetry quantities based on absorbed dose that address deterministic effects relevant to targeted radionuclide therapy.
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Current 3-dimensional imaging modalities SPECT and PET have the resolution and counting statistics needed to quantify macroscale nonuniformities but not microscale nonuniformities.
“Also related to these nonuniformities is the fact that current 3-dimensional imaging modalities -SPECT and PET -have the resolution and counting statistics needed to quantify macroscale nonuniformities (e.g., kidney renal cortex vs. overall kidney volume) but not assess nonuniformities at the microscale (e.g., renal tubule vs. renal glomerulus) level.”
From Normal-Tissue Tolerance to Radiopharmaceutical Therapies, the Knowns and the Unknowns (2021) · cites this paper as [12]
The Mean Absorbed Dose Rate section (page unavailable) describes calculating absorbed-dose distributions at the level of SPECT or PET image voxels, supporting the claim that these modalities can assess spatial variation at an imaged scale. It does not state that their resolution or counting statistics are sufficient for the cited macroscale example, or that they cannot assess microscale nonuniformities such as differences between renal tubules and glomeruli. (LLM, conf=0.83)
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Bolch, W. E., Eckerman, K. F., Sgouros, G., & Thomas, S. R.
- Affiliations
- University of Florida (US)
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (US)
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- University of Cincinnati (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Nuclear Medicine
- Publisher
- Society of Nuclear Medicine
- Published
- 2009-03
- Volume
- 50
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 477-484
- ISSN
- 0161-5505 (ISSN-L)
- 2159-662X
- OpenAlex
- W2032747682
- Cited by
- 913
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2026: 73 · 2025: 88 · 2024: 82 · 2023: 91 · 2022: 74 · 2021: 73 · 2020: 60 · 2019: 44 · 2018: 61 · 2017: 47 · 2016: 42 · 2015: 31 · 2014: 42 · 2013: 27 · 2012: 28
- FWCI
- 19.29
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Nuclear Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry and Applications
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Radiation Dose and Imaging
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Radiation › Advanced Radiotherapy Techniques
- Keywords
- radiopharmaceutical dosimetry, MIRD schema, terminology standardization, absorbed dose, specific absorbed fraction, fraction absorbed, dose coefficients, equivalent dose, effective dose, radiation protection, stochastic radiation effects, deterministic effects, targeted radionuclide therapy
- MeSH terms
- Algorithms, Humans, Terminology as Topic, Radiation Dosage, Relative Biological Effectiveness, Stochastic Processes, Radiopharmaceuticals
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