Technetium-99m Research Paper

Nuclear medicine technology has advantages and disadvantages just as any other career. Using nuclear medicine technology could diagnose a lot of harmful diseases. Also, it is more effective treatment for most categories of cancerous diseases and conditions in some medical institutions. This type of medicine technology helps physicians perform their responsibility of patients’ therapy easily; moreover, when a serious disease developed in the patient’s body, the x-rays of this medicine technology could scan the most sensitive part of the patient’s body.

During the last decade, major progress has been made in the treatment of disease with radioisotopes. Treatments involving the use of medical isotopes are gaining momentum in the race against many types of cancer. FDA approved and highly promising therapies are doubling every 3 to 4 years. Some researchers predict that over 80% of cancer types should be treatable with

In the Nuclear Medicine department, the two most common procedures performed are bone scans and VQ scans (ventilation/perfusion scan). During a Nuclear medicine procedure, the patient is either injected or inhales radioisotopes, which then causes the patient to become the source of radiation that is picked up by a gamma camera. A VQ scan is a two phase scan that requires the patient to be injected with a radioisotope and inhale a gas infused with radioisotopes. This scan is used to determine the blood and air flow of the lungs and detect possible pulmonary emboli. The radioisotopes used for this exam include radioactive Xenon gas and technetium. As for the bone scan the patient is

Seaborg began working with one of the pioneers of nuclear medicine, Joe Hamilton, while attending Berkley. Hamilton needed a radioisotope that had a half-life long enough to be useful in dealing with in the human body; a half-life that was about a week. Seaborg and his long-time friend and partner, Jack Livingwood, used targets of tellurium and bombarded it with deuterons and some with neutrons to reveal iodine-131, which had a half-life of eight days. This element held major sentimental value to Seaborg due to its aid in his mother’s cure of hyperthyroidism. Iodine-131 is a major component still today in cancer treatment, particularly thyroid cancer. Seaborg and Livingwood also discovered cobalt-60, which is also a critical medical isotope. Cobalt-60 emits gamma radiation which in turn focuses directly on cancer cells to destroy it. “Hundreds of thousands of Americans have had their cancers treated by cobalt-60 irradiation, and it is also used to sterilize medical products and equipment” (36). Shortly

Technetium-99m (99mTc) is a short-lived (half-life about 6 hours) metastable nuclear isomer used in nuclear medicine. Technetium 99m is a synthetic radioisotope produced from molybdenum-99. The core structure of technetium 99m is shown below.

Seidlin reported on the success of radioactive iodine (I-131) in treating a patient with advanced thyroid cancer. Later, the use of I-131 was expanded to applications such as thyroid gland imaging, hyperthyroidism treatment and quantification of thyroid function. By the 1950s, the clinical use of nuclear medicine had become widespread as researchers increased their understanding of detecting radioactivity and using radionuclides to monitor biochemical processes.” (Dr. Ananya Mandal, MD) With this information, we know that nuclear medicine is successful with multiple cases of diseases. Our technology today has improved on how treatments can be done. Nuclear medicine has improved from the time being. If treating a disease with nuclear medicine back then had been successful, imagine all of the success stories of everyone today who has had the chance of using nuclear medicine. Nowadays, the science and technology has developed so much that it is easy to cure any type of disease when proper guidance is given. If the technology is used properly, the side effects can be reversed. Today, we can easily figure out a way to reverse the effects of what we did to ourselves with all of the equipment, tools, and technology that people

Technetium-99m is a widely used radioactive tracer isotope in Nuclear Medicine. Its gamma ray energy of about 140 keV is convenient for detection. The fact that both its physical half-life and its biological half-life are very short leads to very fast clearing from the body after an imaging process. A further advantage is that the gamma is a single energy, not accompanied by beta emission, and that permits more precise alignment of imaging detectors.

Who would have thought we would be using nuclear substances for medical purposes? Well, we are many different ways. I am going to discuss a test called the Indium Scan; this test requires the use of nuclear substances being injected into the blood stream via an IV. The amount of Indium that is giving is based on the patient and what the doctor feels as appropriate.

This is particularly important in patients at higher risk of radiation injury (e.g. younger patients) especially those requiring repeated imaging follow-up.

The most commonly used radio tracer for thyroid imaging are TC99m(pertechnetate) , iodine-123 and iodine-131. Thyroid evaluation is one of the most frequently performed nuclear medicine procedure.The equipment use to test for the radioactivity is the gamma probe and is the only device used to test for graves disease. (*3)This device is a handheld device with a Geiger-muller tube, or or scintillation counter, for intraoperative use following interstitial injection of a radionuclide, to locate regional lymph nodes by their radioactivity It is used primarily for sentinel lymph node mapping and parathyroid surgery. The Gamma Probe is also used for RSL (Radioactive Seed Localization), to locate small and non-palpable breast lesions. The sentinel node market experienced high growth in the early and mid 90's starting with melanoma sentinel node surgical search and breast cancer sentinel node staging; both are currently considered standards of care. Most surgeons propose node staging after a positive breast biopsy. New applications are being developed for parathyroid direct detection and intra-operative detection of cancerous tissue using tumor-seeking radiopharmaceuticals. Parathyroid detection is growing fast, while the intraoperative use of gamma probes for direct tumor detection is just emerging. Canberra is one of the manufactures of a gamma probe also know as a GP series- Geiger muller detractors A gamma probe is A pair of rugged halogen-quenched GM detectors serves as the basic detection elements in the GP Series detectors used for wide range gamma radiation measurement. The way this device works is the signal from the gamma probe with Geiger-muller tube and the voltage power supply go to the preamplifier to another amplifier and threshold control. This signal is split one side goes to the rate meter and audio circuit, the other signal goes to the scaler and display driver circuitry which is

99mTc-sestamibi is used as a radiotracer, but it is not truly specific to parathyroid tissue; it also accumulates in salivary, thyroid, and cardiac tissues. For intraoperative gamma detection, patients are injected intravenously with a low dose of 10 mCi 99mTc-sestamibi approximately 1 to 2 hours before operation. For patients who have previously

The thallium scan offers many advantages. It is noninvasive except for the administration of the radioisotope, which involves a radiation dose slightly larger than that received during a chest x-ray, and is extremely accurate. The radionuclide emits 80 keV x-rays they are suitable for scintillation camera imaging.

Radiopaque properties – To allow the substance to be visible during scans (allows seeing of the bones healing).

The use of radioactive elements in medicine is still growing to this day. Many oncologists use it to treat their patients who have cancer. Many cancer patients use this option. They use the radiation to kill off cancer cells. X-ray technicians or radiologists will also use it to administer x-rays to people who may have a broken bone, or need an MRI. The patient is injected with a radioactive material that helps the doctor be able to see inside the body better, whether it be with pictures or ultrasound. Radioactive material is defined as “material that contains radioactivity and thus emits ionizing radiation. It may be material that contains natural radioactivity from the environment or a material that may have been made radioactive.” (The Healthy Physics Society). This happens when someone needs a colonoscopy. They have to drink or are injected with this liquid that helps their organs and all other masses in the body be seen better by the radioactive materials.

There are three aims of this project first of all to measure dose rate of thallium injection during stress test and Thallium (Tl) and Technetium (Tc99m) dose rate at various locations during patient scan using the Smart Ion detector. Secondly to measure dose rate of Tc99m received during drawing up and checking of the doses using personal electronic diode based dose meter. Finally to measure the dose rate received by the staff when they give Tc99m injection to the patients using personal diode based dose meter.