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A radioactive tracer, radiotracer, or radioactive label is a synthetic derivative of a natural compound in which one or more atoms have been replaced by a radionuclide (a radioactive atom). By virtue of its radioactive decay , it can be used to explore the mechanism of chemical reactions by tracing the path that the radioisotope follows from ...
These are the radiations that are picked up by a gamma camera when 99m Tc is used as a radioactive tracer for medical imaging. The remaining approximately 12% of 99m Tc decays are by means of internal conversion , resulting in ejection of high speed internal conversion electrons in several sharp peaks (as is typical of electrons from this type ...
Positron emission tomography (PET) [1] is a functional imaging technique that uses radioactive substances known as radiotracers to visualize and measure changes in metabolic processes, and in other physiological activities including blood flow, regional chemical composition, and absorption.
Radiopharmacology is radiochemistry applied to medicine and thus the pharmacology of radiopharmaceuticals (medicinal radiocompounds, that is, pharmaceutical drugs that are radioactive). Radiopharmaceuticals are used in the field of nuclear medicine as radioactive tracers in medical imaging and in therapy for many diseases (for example ...
The concept of nuclear pharmacy was first described in 1960 by Captain William H. Briner while at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland.Along with Mr. Briner, John E. Christian, who was a professor in the School of Pharmacy at Purdue University, had written articles and contributed in other ways to set the stage of nuclear pharmacy.
With a short half-life of 8 days, this radioisotope is not of practical use in radioactive sources in industrial radiography or sensing. However, since iodine is a component of biological molecules such as thyroid hormones, iodine-131 is of great importance in nuclear medicine, and in medical and biological research as a radioactive tracer.
SPECT is similar to PET in its use of radioactive tracer material and detection of gamma rays. In contrast with PET, the tracers used in SPECT emit gamma radiation that is measured directly, whereas PET tracers emit positrons that annihilate with electrons up to a few millimeters away, causing two gamma photons to be emitted in opposite directions.
Nuclear medicine imaging involves the administration into the patient of radiopharmaceuticals consisting of substances with affinity for certain body tissues labeled with radioactive tracer. The most commonly used tracers are technetium-99m, iodine-123, iodine-131, gallium-67, indium-111, thallium-201 and fludeoxyglucose (18 F) (18 F-FDG).