Surveys on COVID-19 in nuclear medicine: what happened and what we learned
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MINI-REVIEW
Surveys on COVID‑19 in nuclear medicine: what happened and what we learned Salvatore Annunziata1 · Domenico Albano2 · Riccardo Laudicella3 · Matteo Bauckneht4 on behalf of The Young Committee of the Italian Association of Nuclear Medicine (AIMN) Received: 1 September 2020 / Accepted: 12 September 2020 © Italian Association of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging 2020
Abstract Introduction To summarize and comment the available surveys on the impact of COVID-19 on Nuclear Medicine (NM) departments. Methods Recent surveys about the impact of COVID-19 on Nuclear Medicine (NM) departments have been searched on available scientific database. Results Three surveys have been found and commented. Some differences among the surveys should be kept in mind. All studies agreed that COVID-19 had a relevant impact on NM departments. Conclusion Surveys about the impact of COVID-19 in NM could improve the departments’ daily activities, to find a compromise between the security protocols suggested by international guidelines. Keywords Survey · COVID · Nuclear Medicine COronaVIrus Disease 19 (COVID-19) is still spreading worldwide, and the pandemic peak has probably not been reached yet. During the pandemic, Nuclear Medicine (NM) departments have been involved in several changes and issues, such as new scheduling praxes for NM diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, the assistance of patients with diagnosed or suspected COVID-19, and the prevention of COVID-19 spreading in the departments. For these reasons, some research groups promoted different international surveys to understand the impact of the pandemic on NM departments [1–3]. The Young Group of the Italian Association of Nuclear Medicine (AIMN) developed the first international survey * Salvatore Annunziata [email protected] 1
Nuclear Medicine Unit, IRCSS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Via Elio Chianesi 53, 00144 Rome, Italy
2
Department of Nuclear Medicine, University of Brescia and Spedali Civili Brescia, Brescia, Italy
3
Nuclear Medicine Unit, Department of Biomedical and Dental Sciences and of Morpho‑Functional Imaging, University of Messina, Messina, Italy
4
Nuclear Medicine Unit, IRCCS Ospedale Policlinico San Martino, Genoa, Italy
to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 in NM and performed a preliminary report of the obtained responses [1]. Twohundred and ninety-six individual responders from 220 departments were evaluated. Most of the responders were from Europe (67%). Approximately, all departments changed their scheduling praxes due to the pandemic (97%). In most departments, scheduled diagnostic and therapeutic procedures were allowed but quantitatively reduced (51%). A significant reduction (more than 20%) of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures affected 90% and 72% of the departments, respectively. Incidental COVID-19 signs in NM exams occurred in about half of the departments. Only a few departments were closed or shifted to assist patients with COVID-19 (16%). Finally, most of the responders thought that t
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