FALSE ALARMS AT AIRPORTS - A warning to post-radiation patients

[Susan Gawarecki <loc@icx.net>]

FALSE ALARMS AT AIRPORTS - A warning to post-radiation patients

BY BRYN NELSON, STAFF WRITER

NYNewsday.com

December 1, 2004



Patients treated with radioactive compounds may want to carry a note 

from their doctors when traveling - or risk being mistaken for a terrorist.



In a study released yesterday, researchers found that 29 diagnostic 

tests and treatments can cause patients to trigger false alarms when 

they pass radiation detectors like those designed to ferret out smuggled 

radioactive materials. An estimated 10,000 are in use at borders, ports 

and airports.



"If you think about it, it's pretty parallel to patients who have metal 

hip implants setting off metal detectors," said Dr. Lionel Zuckier, a 

professor of radiology at the New Jersey Medical School in Newark.



Researchers have long noted such side effects in nuclear medicine, in 

which doctors diagnose or treat medical conditions by directing small 

amounts of radioactively tagged compounds to specific organs or body 

tissues.



In the new study, presented in Chicago at the annual meeting of the 

Radiological Society of North America, Zuckier and his colleagues 

calculated how long those consequences might last for 29 of the 

radioactive compounds, known as radio- pharmaceuticals.



Iodine-131, used to treat thyroid cancer and hyperthyroidism, yielded 

one of the longest detection periods after delivery, about 95 days. More 

unexpectedly, the researchers calculated that several diagnostic 

compounds, including the thallium-201 tracer used in many cardiac exams, 

could be detected for a month afterward.



"To me, it's really shocking that really trace amounts can be detected 

for 30 days," Zuckier said. He said the study highlighted the need for 

official letters or cards that patients can carry, identifying the 

nuclear medical procedure, when it was administered, and who should be 

called to verify it.



Both the Society of Nuclear Medicine and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission have likewise encouraged hospitals to develop a notification 

system, and Zuckier said many hospitals are already doing so.



Among the more notorious false alarms, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission 

notice issued last December described a March 20, 2003, incident in 

which a bus traveling from New York to Atlantic City set off a radiation 

alarm in a tunnel. Eventually, the alarm was traced to a man who had 

been treated earlier in the day with iodine-131 - and warned not to use 

public transportation.



Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Dave McIntyre said the report 

was "alerting our licensees that this could happen, and in the post 9/11 

environment, it could happen more often."



Zuckier agreed, noting that about 16 million nuclear medicine imaging 

and treatment procedures are performed in the United States every year.



http://snipurl.com/b0xa



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