Re: Radioactive blood

[Douglas Simpkin <dsimpkin@execpc.com>]

At 01:04 PM 12/1/99 -0600, Carol Marcus wrote:
>In 19 years of Nuclear Medicine practice, I have never found it necessary to
>draw blood shortly after I-131 was administered.  All bloods were drawn
>ahead of time.  The first question to ask is why these bloods were being
>drawn in the first place......

Unfortunately, the authorized user/nuclear medicine physician is not the
only one who has access to the patient. In our place we have a pool of
aggressive internal medicine residents who like to "do their own thing,"
poking/prodding/ordering tests on house patients as they see fit. (I'm sure
its not that bad, but listening to these young Rambos, it seems like it!) 

As Dr. Marcus states (and our nuclear medicine physicians confirm),
necessary blood draws should be done prior to therapeutic I-131
administration. We've set up nursing procedures to confirm that these draws
are indeed done before (and not after) administration. While the
communication between Internal Medicine and Nuclear Medicine medical staff
could obviously be improved, it's up to the poor nurses to intercept
residents' orders and filter the medically necessary wheat from the chaff
of ignorance.

Doug

Douglas J. Simpkin, Ph.D., DABR
St. Luke's Medical Center
2900 West Oklahoma Avenue
Milwaukee, WI 53215
phone: (414)649-6457
fax: (414)649-5118
email: dsimpkin@execpc.com
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