RADIO-ISOTOPES IN MEDICAL
DIAGNOSIS
• Radio-isotopes are used in medicine both for therapeutic as well as diagnostic
applications.
• In diagnostic practice, small amounts of radioactive chemicals, called ‘tracers’ (or
radio-pharmaceuticals), are injected into an arm vein or administered through
ingestion or inhalation.
• The amount of radioactivity at different points within the patient’s body, or in
body fluids, is then examined
• by radiation detectors.
• Using these detectors, the amount of radioactivity can be measured within parts of
organs as well as within the whole organ.
• The images show where biochemical processes are occurring normally and where
they are occurring too slowly or too quickly.
➢Among the earliest procedures involving the use of radioactive tracers in medicine
was measurement of the uptake of radioactive iodine by the thyroid gland.
➢In the early 1940s, it was found that the rate of uptake of iodine by the thyroid
greatly increased in patients with disease characterized by increased production of
thyroid hormone (hyperthyroidism), a disease led nervousness, tremor, weight loss
and, in extreme cases, even death.
➢Other patients exhibited decreased iodine uptake (hypothyroidism) by the thyroid
and had symptoms and signs of diminished thyroid function. Thus, the radioactive
tracers have been in use in medical diagnostics for a long time and even today, the
thyroid gland continues to be the organ most frequently examined by nuclear
medicine
✓In nuclear medical diagnostics, the imaging of organ functions is carried out non-
invasively.
✓In contrast to other imaging diagnostic modalities (ultrasound, X-ray, MRI), the
nuclear medical
✓examination approach is primarily function-oriented.
✓such as blood circulation, metabolism and vitality of organs and tumours.
• The radio-nuclide is labeled to a compound which will be taken up or
metabolized in some way by the human tissue to be studied.
• The patient receives the material, usually by intravenous injection, and after a
suitable delay, which may be minutes or hours, to allow uptake in the target
tissues and clearance from the blood, imaging can commence
• In this way useful static images, each taking 2–10 minutes, can be produced of
the bone, brain, thyroid, lung etc.
• Dynamic studies can be performed with the gamma camera, starting at the
moment of injection and capturing frames of the data either photographicaally
or digitally, at times ranging from minutes down to fractions of a second.
• Tecnetium-99m (Tc-99m) has proven to be the most important imaging radio-
nuclide used to examine the brain, liver, lungs, bones, thyroid, kidney and heart.
PHYSICS OF RADIOACTIVITY
• From the theory of atomic structure, it is known that some elements are naturally unstable and exhibit
natural radioactivity.
• elements can be made radioactive by bombarding them with high-energy charged particles or neutrons
which are produced by either a cyclotron or a nuclear reactor.
• This process will alter the ratio of photons to neutrons in the atoms, thus creating a new unstable nucleus
which could undergo radioactive decay.
• The extra neutron disintegrates and in the process, releases energy in the form of gamma radiation.
• Radioactive emissions take place in the following three different forms
• Alpha Emissions: Alpha particles are composed of the two protons and two neutrons. They are least penetrating
and can be stopped or absorbed by air. They are most harmful to the human tissue.
• Beta Emissions: Beta particles are positively or negatively charged, high speed particles originating in the
nucleus. They are not as harmful to tissue as alpha particles, because they are less ionizing, but are much more
harmful than gamma rays.
• Gamma Emissions: Like X-rays, Gamma particles constitute electromagnetic radiation that travels at the speed of
light. They differ from X-rays only in their origin.
• X-rays originate in the orbital electrons of an atom, whereas gamma rays originate in the nucleus. They are
caused by unstable nucleus.
The energies of alpha and beta particles and gamma radiations are expressed in terms of
the electron volt.
One electron volt signifies the energy that an electron would acquire, if it were
accelerated through a potential difference of one volt.
Radioactive emissions have energies of the order of thousands or millions of electron
volts.
The energy of alpha particles is generally high and lies in the range 2 to
10 MeV (millions electron volt).
Beta emissions have an energy range 0–3 MeV.
• Time Decay of Radioactive Isotopes
• Each radioactive isotope is characterized not only by the type and energy of radiations emitted,
• but also by the characteristic life-time of the isotope.
• This is most conveniently designated by the half-life or half-period of the isotope. The half-period of a
radioactive isotope is the time required for half of the initial stock of atoms to decay.
• Thus, after one-half period has elapsed, the total activity of any single radioactive isotope will have fallen to
half its initial value; after two half-periods, the activity will be one-quarter its initial value and so on
• The half-life of a radioactive isotope is given by
• where is the decay constant for a particular radio-isotope.
• The unit of radioactivity is curie and is abbreviated as Ci or
ci.