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Radiolabeling is not necessary for some applications. For some purposes, soluble ionic salts can be used directly without further modification (e.g., gallium-67, gallium-68, and radioiodine isotopes). These uses rely on the chemical and biological properties of the radioisotope itself, to localize it within the organism or biological system.
Radioactive isotopes are used in medicine for both treatment and diagnostic scans. The most common isotope used in diagnostic scans is Technetium-99m, used in approximately 85% of all nuclear medicine diagnostic scans worldwide.
A radionuclide (radioactive nuclide, radioisotope or radioactive isotope) is a nuclide that has excess numbers of either neutrons or protons, ...
Some radioisotopes are used in ionic or inert form without attachment to a pharmaceutical; these are also included. There is a section for each radioisotope with a table of radiopharmaceuticals using that radioisotope. The sections are ordered alphabetically by the English name of the radioisotope.
Radioisotopes of hydrogen, carbon, phosphorus, sulfur, and iodine have been used extensively to trace the path of biochemical reactions. A radioactive tracer can also be used to track the distribution of a substance within a natural system such as a cell or tissue , [ 1 ] or as a flow tracer to track fluid flow .
Radiochemistry is the chemistry of radioactive materials, where radioactive isotopes of elements are used to study the properties and chemical reactions of non-radioactive isotopes (often within radiochemistry the absence of radioactivity leads to a substance being described as being inactive as the isotopes are stable).
Natural radioisotopes [ edit ] Many years ago radium-226 and radon-222 were used as gamma-ray sources for industrial radiography : for instance, a radon-222 source was used to examine the mechanisms inside an unexploded V-1 flying bomb , while some of the early Bathyspheres could be examined using radium-226 to check for cracks.
Initial introduction of radioisotopes into medicine required individuals to acquire of a considerable background information which was foreign to their medical training. Often a particular application drove the introduction of radioisotopes into a health care facility.