The All Purpose Isotope Essay

Technetium-99’s radioactive properties can be used to identify lymph nodes in patients with breast cancer. Through an immunoscintigraphy procedure in an immune system protein is capable of binding to cancer cells. After injection, medical equipment is used to detect gamma rays emitted by the Technetium-99m. Tumor is detected where the concentration is high. This technique is very helpful when finding cancer cell are hard to detect (Uses of

Iodine-131’s atomic structure has 5 energy levels in total. The first energy level has 2 electrons, second energy level has 8 electrons, third energy level has 18 electrons, fourth energy level has 18 electrons and finally the fifth energy level has 7 electrons. The radioisotope has a half-life of 8.0 days and every half-life in the radioactive Iodine is reduced by 50%, however, the other 50% does not become part of Iodine-131 because it becomes stable. The radioisotope has 53 protons and 78 neutrons in total. It has a blackish colour to it. Its chemical form is a water-soluble salt. The nuclear decay equation is 131/53I → 131/54Xe + 0/-1E. The radioisotope’s mass number is 131 and its atomic symbol is I131. The radioisotope is a gamma and beta emitting isotope. Furthermore, the beta emission is the destructive component of the radioisotope. This is supported by the fact that Beta emission is an electron that is ejected from the nucleus which is very ionizing. The aspect also makes beta electrons very destructive to thyroid tissue as it concentrates the iodine 200x more than any tissue in order to make thyroxine which is an endocrine hormone to regulate at the rate of metabolic processes.

Medicine has developed into an astonishing work of pure art over the years. From an old village healer crushing the simplest herbs in ancient times, to large machines administering chemical formulas to patients today. The newest addition to this artwork is Nuclear Medicine. Nuclear Medicine is a medicine that deals with the use of radioactive substances entering the body to attach/ attack cells. Whether it be to diagnose, test, or to treat, this nuclear technology has driven the medical and chemistry world into the future.

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

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

In recent years, the oil and natural gas industry has continued to expand to populated areas, thus growing a concern for nearby communities regarding volatile organic compounds (VOCs) air toxics and human exposure.1 Current screening methods to determine exposure of toxic VOCs such as the family of Benzene, Toluene, Ethylene and Xylene (BTEX) requires a traditional gas chromatograph (GC), which requires high energy use and its bulky size is not ideal for long-term field deployment and real-time measurements. Sensor technology advancements have enabled the use of low-cost devices to measure VOCs, but require additional techniques for chemical speciation for BTEX identification (i.e.

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. The help that the scan provides using technetium 99m easily out ways the risks in its use. Technetium 99m is inserted into the body through an injection or iv (inter-vascular). It then breaks up in the body via gamma radiation, it builds up where there is an increased flow in blood which indicates a disease. Or in areas of abnormality. This build up is detected by a gamma camera and then a scan is produced imaging a physical image ready to be examined or viewed. Some specific benefits include low gamma radiation, short half-life (approximately 6 hours), a minute harm to the body, and the ease and flow in the time it takes to pass through the body. Overuse of this radioisotope could lead to cancer or other abnormalities to the brain or

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.

After World War II the United States began mass-producing radioactive isotopes. These were shipped for the use of physicians and scientists. It provided physicians with new tools for the diagnoses and therapy of disease, specifically cancer. The radioactive isotopes were also used by scientists. It enabled molecular transformations to be traced by biologists. Radioactive isotopes were however undercut in the 1950s as the dangers of low-level radiation was

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

Important attributes of medical nuclear isotopes are their small half-lives. A half-life is the time it takes for half of a sample of an isotope to decay. Technetium—99, for example, has a six-hour half-life. Although short, this half-life allows enough time for testing. After this time period, the isotope will lose some of its radiation. The minute half-life allows very little time for any damage

Plants being constructed by today's standards are 1,600 times safer than early nuclear plants, in terms of the predicted frequency of a large radiation leak”(“Risk of Meltdown”). Would you feel safe living one mile from something than was constructed 1,600 times safer than previous construction? If you would, then you are going to support our debate, research, and presentation is for nuclear energy. Throughout this project we have been collecting data, some supported nuclear energy others didn’t. Recently we did a Geiger counter lab there, it’s shown how much radiation we are exposed to. The dangerous amount of radiation is 5 rems luckily the school only had .0001 to .001 rems per hour. An upside is we do not rely on fossil fuels, and we do

There are many advantages and disadvantages to the use of radioactive elements in medicines. Some advantages include the fact that

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.