Comparison of strontium-89 solution sources in UK hospitals, 2003

Concerns have been raised within the nuclear medicine field about the accuracy of measurements of 89Sr. The 85Sr impurity present in the 89Sr solution has a significant effect on the response of radionuclide calibrators used in hospitals. A comparison was conducted between the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and the UK hospital physics community. Only 58% of the results were within 5% of the NPL value. Work at NPL has resulted in correction factors for the NPL secondary standard radionuclide calibrator and for Capintec calibrators, which will produce a significant improvement in performance.