Professional Documents
Culture Documents
All
radionuclides
commonly
administered to patients in nuclear medicine are artificially produced Most are produced reactors, by or cyclotrons, radionuclide
nuclear
1. Cyclotrons
Cyclotrons produce radionuclides by bombarding stable nuclei with high-
>Specialized hospital-based cyclotrons have been developed to produce positron-emitting radionuclides for positron emission tomography (PET)
>Usually located near the PET imager because of short half-lives of the radionuclides produced
2. Nuclear Reactors
Specialized nuclear reactors used to produce clinically useful
>Uranium-235 fission products can be chemically separated from other fission products. >Concentration of these carrier-free
fission-produced radionuclides is very
high
Neutron Activation
Neutrons produced by the fission of uranium in a nuclear reactor can be used to create radionuclides by bombarding stable target material placed in the reactor
of
>Almost all radionuclides produced by neutron activation decay by beta-minus particle emission
3. Radionuclide Generators
A generator is a self-contained system housing a parent/daughter mixture in equilibrium. There must be a method of removing the daughter and leaving the parent behind to regenerate more daughter activity.
It is designed to produce the daughter for some purpose separate from the parent.
Generators produce certain short-lived radioisotopes on-site which cannot be shipped by commercial sources. To be useful, the parent's half-life must be long compared to the travel time required to transport the generator to recipient. The typical shelf-life of a Mo/Tc generator is 2 weeks, as is the expiration date.
the process of removing the daughter from the generator is referred to as elution;
the
solution
used
to
remove
the
and the solution collected from the generator containing the daughter radioisotope is called the eluate.
Technetium-99m
has
been
the
nuclear medicine
Short half-life (6 hours) makes it impractical to store even a weekly supply
Supply problem overcome by obtaining parent Mo-99, which has a longer half-life (67 hours) and continually produces Tc-99m
A system for holding the parent in such a way that the daughter can be easily separated for clinical use is called a radionuclide generator
1. Generator output must be sterile and pyrogen-free. 2. The chemical properties of the daughter must be different than those of the parent to permit separation of daughter from parent.
3. Generator should be eluted with 0.9% saline solution and should involve no violent chemical reactions. 4.Daughter isotope for diagnostic studies should be short-lived gammaemitting nuclides.
5. Inexpensive, effective shielding of generator, minimizing radiation dose to those using it.
This is easy to accomplish since lead is very dense and therefore a good attenuator of radiation.
The saline supply is in a 30-ml bottle/vial for elution Because saline used never exceeds 20ml, up to 10ml of air follow the saline through the fluid path, effectively drying the column
The saline supply is a 500ml bottle and is an integral part of the generator Once elution is completed, the fluid path is filled with a saline for the life of the generator and the alumina column is always saturated with 0.9% NaCl solution
Equilibrium
is a condition established in a parent/daughter mixture when both parent and daughter are radioactive and when the daughters half-life is shorter than that of the parent. if the daughters half-life exceeds that of the parent, equilibrium will never be reached.
Transient Equilibrium
-is a condition reached when the half-life of the parent is approximately 10 times greater than the half-life of the daughter.
Secular Equilibrium
-if the half-life of the parent is very much longer than that of the daughter (e.g., more than 100 longer).
2. 0.9% saline solution (the eluent) is passed through the column and Na pertechnetate, the daughter of 99Mo decay, is eluted from the column with high efficiency due to its almost total lack of affinity for alumina.
99Mo/99mTc GENERATOR
is considered to be the workhorse of all generators and is ideal with no significant limitations used in almost 80% of nuclear scan performed
*Technetium-99m=Bone and brain imaging; thyroid and liver studies; localization of brain tumors.
9. Cost-effective
Instrumentation:
Gamma camera
Radiopharmacy
Sterility
desired radionuclide
Images must contain enough counts that quantum mottle does not mask uniformity defects Uniformity test will reveal most malfunctions camera of a scintillation
Other QA
Spatial resolution and spatial linearity should be assessed at least weekly
Complete annually
evaluation
at
least
Field Uniformity
Spatial Resolution Spatial Linearity Sensitivity
Frequency
Daily & before each new radionuclide used
Daily
Daily, after repair Weekly, after repair Weekly, after repair Quarterly
Energy
discrimination
windows
must be adjusted to center them on the photopeak or photopeaks of the desired radionuclide.
Peaking may be done manually by adjusting the energy window settings while viewing the spectrum or automatically by the camera Should be peaked before first use each day and before imaging a different radionuclide
Small
source
used
to
peak
camera;
by the
radiation
patient
emitted
Field Uniformity
Refers to the gamma cameras ability to detect a uniform source of radiation
Uniformity depends on the uniform response of the NaI crystal & the PMTs.
B. Non-uniform Flood
A, B, C. Damage PMT
D. Cracked Crystal
Extrinsic uniformity Two common radionuclide sources used: acrylic plastic (Plexiglas) container filled w/ H2O 1-10mCi Tc-99m solid-sealed 10 mCi cobalt-57 sheet Extrinsic can be evaluate/assess the defects of the collimator
Damaged Collimator
Images must contain enough counts that quantum mottle does not mask uniformity defects
Uniformity
test
will
reveal
most
Spatial resolution gamma cameras ability to reproduce small details of a radioactive distribution.
Required to be performed a minimum of once a week on every imaging system
Spatial Linearity gamma cameras ability to produce a linear image w/ straight lines corresponding to the same straight lines of the bar pattern.
Sensitivity
Performed to determine the gamma camera detectors ability to detect the ionizing event that occur in the NaI crystal. Events recorded as counts per minute are calculated and expressed as cpm per microcurie of acitivity present Performed biannualy
Radionuclide Generator
Two common generators used:
Molybdenum-99
Technetium-99m QC is essential on the Technetium eluent each time generator is eluted, to ensure that the eluent does not contain any contaminants or impurities including radionuclide impurity of Mo-99, molybdate, chemical impurity of Al+3, alumina, or radiochemical impurity of hydrolyzed reduced technetium(HR-Tc).
Radiation Protection
The basis for all radiation protection activities is the supposition that radiation is harmful and that the smaller the radiation doses we receive, the smaller are the risks.
Justification- no practice involving exposures to radiation should be adopted unless it produces sufficient benefit Optimization- individual doses, number of people exposed and occurrence of exposures should be kept ALARA Individual dose and risk limits- the exposure of individuals from the combination of all relevant practices is subject to dose limits
Cardinal Principles
Shielding: If you have a thick shield between yourself and the radioactive material, more of the radiation will be absorbed by the thick shield, and you will be exposed to less rays.
Time: Minimizing the time spent with the radioactive source will also reduce radiation risks.
Distance: The farther you are from the radioactive source,the lower your exposure. Thus reducing the probable risks.