[Intl_DxMedPhys] NM uniformity flood to ACR

[promedphys at icloud.com]

!-------------------------------------------------------------------|
  This Message Is From an External Sender
  This message came from outside your organization.
|-------------------------------------------------------------------!

Good Morning:

In an ACR accreditation submission for a Siemens Symbia imager, the reviewer did not like the uniformity image. This flood was performed with a Tc-99m point-source. Source/imager distance or source/imager alignment were stated as possible causes. ACR instructions explicitly prohibit the submission of a curvature corrected point-source flood, the daily QC procedure for these imagers. No problem, I don’t love black-box corrections either. However, if distance/alignment was an issue on the first try, they could be an issue during the second, especially in a small imager room. The ACR’s instructions allow Co-57 floods which implies a sheet source. Well, experience in these situations has taught to confirm and not assume and thus have to repeat. So, when asked to confirm that a Co-57 sheet source uniformity flood was acceptable for this re-submission, the answer from the ACR was equivocal. I am hoping someone has a better answer: can a Co-57 sheet source be used to provide a uniformity flood image for ACR accreditation when Tc-99m point-source floods were originally submitted?

As the goal is to demonstrate uniformity, I believe the answer is “yes”. But, the ACR is at times inscrutable. And as I have stated, twice bitten, always shy.

If you have gotten this far, thank you.

Brian.M. Methe'