[In-patient nuclear medicine therapy in Germany from 2010 to 2012. Analysis of structured quality reports].

UNLABELLED: The aim of this analysis was to collect and analyse Germany-wide data on the status and development of in-patient Nuclear Medicine therapy. The official hospital quality reports were to be used as the data source.

METHODS: The reference reports from all hospitals in Germany with Nuclear Medicine therapy units, compiled by Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss (G-BA) from the machine-usable XML data of the quality reports, were analysed for the years 2010 and 2012. Results from our own preceding investigations of structured quality reports for the years 2004, 2006 and 2008 were used to assess the longer-term development. To determine the Germany-wide incidence of thyroid surgery and radio-iodine therapy, public databases of Institut für das Entgeltsystem im Krankenhaus (InEK) were assessed for the years from 2004 to 2012.

RESULTS: The total number of in-patient Nuclear Medicine treatment cases decreased from 50 363 to 47 314 patients in the period from 2010 to 2012. There was a marked decline of 17.5% in case incidence over the longer period from 2004 to 2012. The decrease is primarily due to a decrease in cases with hyperthyroidism (ICD code E05). The number of thyroid surgeries has been declining since 2009. There was a moderate 23.7% increase in the number of cases with the diagnosis of thyroid carcinoma (ICD code C73) from 2004 to 2012.

CONCLUSIONS: Presumably, the improved iodine supply in Germany has led to a decline in inpatients with hyperthyroidism in nuclear medicine and consequently to a decrease in both the number of radio-iodine therapies and thyroid operations in surgery. In contrast, the number of patients in nuclear medicine therapy units diagnosed with thyroid cancer has increased moderately which correlates with the worldwide increasing incidence of this disease.