Knowledge and perception of nuclear medicine by radiologists in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Objective(s): to assess the knowledge and perception of nuclear medicine by radiologists in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa. Methods: cross-sectional study conducted from April 8 to June 7 2020 including radiologists practicing in French-speaking sub-Saharan African countries. Data were collected electronically via a google form. Results: Of the 142 radiologists surveyed, 45.8% had already completed an internship in Europe, 3.52% in a nuclear medicine department and 72.54% had a nuclear medicine department in their country of practice. Among these radiologists, 21.13% knew the three main techniques of nuclear medicine and only 9.15% knew that nuclear medicine allows functional, metabolic and molecular studies. On average, 56.8% were aware of clinical indications for the main fields of nuclear medicine. In 47.18% of cases, they thought that scintigraphic imaging was more irradiating than radiological imaging, 71.1% knew about hybrid imaging techniques, 43.66% had read a scientific article on nuclear medicine, 4.93% had attended a nuclear medicine conference and 28.9% had recommended a scintigraphic imaging examination in their report. Half of them would like to see nuclear medicine and radiology merged into a single specialty and 95.77% considered it essential to create a nuclear medicine department in their country. Conclusion: The level of knowledge of radiologists in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa about nuclear medicine was, on the whole, unsatisfactory with a generally encouraging perception.