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Abstract

Aim: Aga Khan University Hospital has recently embarked into PET/CT imaging and we have tailored standard operating procedures (SOP) as per recent guidelines.  This clinical audit was done to ensure good clinical practice as per defined bench marks. Material Methods: This clinical audit was conducted from 1st July till 5th August 2016 and we did audit of 11 parameters related to demographics, patient preparation, acquisition protocol, qualitative and semiquantitative parameters, reporting and radiation dose from PET/CT study. The compliance of these parameters was checked against predefined benchmarks. Results: 100% compliance was found for demographic, height and weight entries, fasting blood glucose level, pregnancy, intravenous contrast and low dose CT scan. Non-compliance was found for dose of 18FDG (71% for 3 MBq/kg benchmark), uptake time (25% against 55-75 minute benchmark), mean hepatic uptake (19% against 1.3-3% benchmark) and addenda in reporting (4% against 0.5% benchmark). Conclusions: This clinical audit finds an over-all good compliance to departmental protocol which is tailored as per recent guidelines to achieve a global standardization in PET/CT imaging. Although radiation dose is significantly low, attempts should be taken to minimize the magnitude of non-compliance. Similarly, work flow must be strategized to prevent avoidable reasons resulting in non-compliance in uptake time. Key Words: PET/CT; standardized; FDG Dose; Uptake Time; dosimetry; addendum