Simplified Dynamic Phantom for Pediatric Renography: A Description of Instrument and Its Performance

Objective(s): Renography is used for the diagnostic evaluation of pediatric patients with a suspected obstruction of urinary tract or impaired renal function. The recommended dose for children have been released by the European Association of Nuclear Medicine, Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, and Japanese Society of Nuclear Medicine. Since acquisition counts in dynamic scintigraphy are affected by the administered doses and sensitivity of the scintillation camera, the scan procedure should be determined independently. In this study, we constructed simplified dynamic phantom imitating pediatric renography and tested its performance.Methods: Simplified dynamic phantom consisted of three components (i.e.,infusion, imitated kidney, and drainage sections). The infusion rates (mL/min) were determined by comparing the time activity curves obtained from patientswith normal renal function. The timepoints of the maximum counts (Tmax), as well as the twothirds and onehalf of the maximum counts (T2/3 and T1/2) were measured in different doses using the phantom with the bestmatch infusion rateand duration, and lowenergy generalpurpose (LEGP) or lowenergy highresolution (LEHR) collimators and applying different attenuations.Results: The bestmatch infusion rates of the phantom to imitate the time activity curve of the normal renal function were 42.0, 1.0, 0.6, and 0.3 mL/min in the arterial, secretory, earlyexcretory, and lateexcretory phases, respectively. When 30 MBq, LEHR collimator and nonwaterequivalent phantom were applied, Tmax, T2/3, and T1/2 were 242±15.3, 220±10.0 and 317±25.2 seconds, respectively. Using LEGP collimator and (3 MBq of activity) 5cm waterequivalent phantom, Tmax, T2/3, and T1/2 values were estimated as 242±5.8, 213±11.5, and 310±17.3 sec, respectively.Conclusion: Our simplified dynamic phantom for pediatric renography could imitate the time activity curves obtained from patients with normal renal function. Tmax, T2/3, and T1/2 could be measured under various settings of dose,collimator, and tissue attenuation.