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Positron Emission Tomography Report

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Introduction
Positron emission tomography is used for research and medical diagnosis of soft tissue in humans and animals. It uses radioactive drug tracers that are swallowed, injected, or inhaled into the body, to produce radioactive emissions that are then detected with a computer tomographer (Mayo Clinic 2013). This computer tomographer creates an image much like a camera makes an image on film, when exposed to light (Denniston 2014). The scans are then used to produce three dimensional images that provide information on a targeted body system. When interpreting the images, diseased areas of an organ, are identified by dense regions of the radioactive drug tracer. Some of the area's of the body commonly scanned are blood, bone, brain, …show more content…

The radioactive isotopes are atoms with the same number of protons and electrons, but a different number of neutrons and atomic weight, and are described as have an unstable nucleus. The radioactive isotope produces gamma rays when it undergoes beta plus decay, also know as positron emission, occurring after the radioactive isotope undergoes change inside the nucleus. This change starts when an atom's proton is converted into a neutron inside the nucleus resulting in the loss of a positive charge, and a small amount of mass being lost. This mass is referred to as a positron. Then the positron after release collides with an electron and annihilation of the particles occur, producing two gamma rays. These gamma rays are the radioactive emissions that are then detected by the imaging machine. Isotopes with a short half life are selected for positron emission topography, and generally take around 18- 20 min to decay inside the body. Some of the common isotopes that are used in the radioactive drug tracers are chromium-51, technetium-99m, thallium-201, xenon-133, barium-313, strontium-87 (Denniston

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