Medicinal and Diagnostic Applications

Functional Aptamers for Proteins and their Application in Biotechnology, Molecular Medicine and Diagnostics... 

The analytical and diagnostic applications of NMR in biochemistry and medicine have developed very rapidly in recent years. The techniques employed fall broadly into two categories (1) nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (NMRl) (usually known simply as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)), and (2) nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMRS), or simply MRS (Chapter 14.2). 

The metal is radioactive and does not occur in nature, as the half-life of all isotopes is shorter than 5 million years. It is found in readily isol-able amounts in nuclear reactors. It is an effective "rust-preventer" for iron and steel in special applications. The metastable isotope "Tc has a half-life of only 6 hours and is therefore used as a gamma radiator in medicine (radiation therapy and diagnostics). Of very little commercial importance. 

The utilization of radioisotopes in the field of nuclear medicine has been promoted for various purposes. Among them, diagnostic applications have had much success during the past two decades. Technetium-99m, thallium-210 and iodine-123, for example, have been used as radioisotopes for imaging studies. 

Metals continue to play an important role in radiopharmaceuticals for diagnostic and therapeutic applications in nuclear medicine. Radiopharmaceuticals are drugs that contain a radionuclide and are used for imaging if the radionuclide is a photon emitter (gamma (7) or positron (/3+)) or for... 

The third International Dendrimer Symposium took place at Berlin Technical University in 2003. Interdisciplinary lectures demonstrated the extent to which dendritic molecules branch ouf into other areas of science, such as physics, biology, medicine, and engineering. The possibilities of functionalisation and resulting applications in industry were at the focus of this symposium. For example, nano-dimensioned dendrimer-based contrast agents were presented as multilabels for visualisation of blood vessels (see Chapter 8). Potential applications of dendritic materials as luminescence markers in diagnostics attracted lively interest (see Chapter 8). Consideration of the differences between dendrimers and hyperbranched polymers from the viewpoint of their cost-favourable application was also a topic of discussion [18]. 

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