Imaging radioactive

Radiochemical tracers, compounds labeled with radioisotopes (qv), have become one of the most powerful tools for detection and analysis in research, and to a limited extent in clinical diagnosis (see Medical IMAGING TECHNOLOGY). A molecule or chemical is labeled using a radioisotope either by substituting a radioactive atom for a corresponding stable atom in the compound, such as substituting for H, for or for P, and for for... 

Instmmentation is also available by which the location of radioactive spots or bands on gels and membranes can be imaged without use of film. 

Kinetics of the biodistribution must be compatible with the practical aspects of hospital routine and imaging capabiUty. In the case of a diagnostic agent, maximal lesion contrast, maximal radioactivity concentrations in tissue of interest, and minimal background radioactivity during the time imaging... 

The camera actually images the annihilation events, not the radioactive decay events directiy. Thus imaging of high energy positron emitters can have a limiting resolution owing to the range of the positron. 

Because few scatter events are recorded, attenuation compensation is relatively easier for PET using an external positron emitting source. As a result, the technology for quantitative determinations of radioactivity distributions is significantly more advanced in PET imaging. Technology development for SPECT, however, is improving this parameter. 

Metallacarboranes. These are used in homogeneous catalysis (222), including hydrogenation, hydrosilylation, isomerization, hydrosilanolysis, phase transfer, bum rate modifiers in gun and rocket propellants, neutron capture therapy (254), medical imaging (255), processing of radioactive waste (192), analytical reagents, and as ceramic precursors. 

Medical Uses. A significant usage of chelation is in the reduction of metal ion concentrations to such a level that the properties may be considered to be negligible, as in the treatment of lead poisoning. However, the nuclear properties of metals may retain then full effect under these conditions, eg, in nuclear magnetic resonance or radiation imaging and in localizing radioactivity. 

Technetium-99m coordination compounds are used very widely as noniavasive imaging tools (35) (see Imaging technology Radioactive tracers). Different coordination species concentrate ia different organs. Several of the [Tc O(chelate)2] types have been used. In fact, the large majority of nuclear medicine scans ia the United States are of technetium-99m complexes. Moreover, chiral transition-metal complexes have been used to probe nucleic acid stmcture (see Nucleic acids). For example, the two chiral isomers of tris(1,10-phenanthroline)mthenium (IT) [24162-09-2] (14) iateract differentiy with DNA. These compounds are enantioselective and provide an addition tool for DNA stmctural iaterpretation (36). 

A PET scan requires a substance called a tracer. A suitable tracer must accumulate in the target organ, and it must be modified to contain unstable radioactive atoms that emit positrons. Glucose is used for brain imaging, because the brain processes glucose as the fuel for mental and neural activities. A common tracer for PET brain scans is glucose modified to contain radioactive fluorine atoms. Our molecular inset shows a simplified model of this modified glucose molecule. 

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