Nuclear medicine therapeutic

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... 

Scintigraphic imaging is a noninvasive imaging technique commonly applied in nuclear medicine. Radiolabeled compounds (called radiopharmaceuticals or radiotracers) are administered intravenously to patients for diagnostic or, in certain cases, therapeutic purposes. The in vivo distribution can provide important physiological information about tissue function. 

Staff preparing radiopharmaceuticals to be administered for nuclear medicine diagnostic and therapeutic procedures and handling sealed sources for brachytherapy use protective blocks to shield the head and trunk. For these workers, a single personal monitor is located on the trunk. ... 

Radiophannaceuticals are almost ideal diagnostic tools because radioisotope tracers do not alter body physiology, and they permit external monitoring with minimal instrumentation. Presently, there are three major areas of nuclear medicine (1) physiological function studies, (2) radionuclide imaging procedures, and (3) therapeutic techniques. 

The origins of nuclear medicine date to 1901, when the French physician Henri Danlos first used radium in the treatment of a tuberculous skin lesion. Since that time, uses of radioactivity have become a crucial part of modem medical care, both diagnostic and therapeutic. Current nuclear techniques can be grouped into three classes (1) in vivo procedures, (2) therapeutic procedures, and (3) imaging procedures. 

Limitation. The radiation dose received by the personnel handling radioactive material will never exceed the legally established dose limits. It has to be taken into account that such limitations do not apply to patients receiving radiopharmaceuticals as either diagnostic or therapeutic agents. But nuclear medicine physicians, nuclear physicists, and radiopharmacists must ensure that the amount of radiopharmaceutical administered to a patient is adapted to his or her disease and optimized to obtained the intended result. 

Although therapeutic application represents less than 10% of the nuclear medicine investigations, therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals are a very important group of radiopharmaceuticals. Hence, a brief description is outlined for production of therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals following some other selected groups of radiopharmaceuticals. 

Labelled compounds have found broad application in various fields of science and technology. A great variety of labelled compounds are applied in nuclear medicine. The compounds are produced on a large scale as radiopharmaceuticals in cooperation with nuclear medicine, mainly for diagnostic purposes and sometimes also for therapeutic application. The study of metabolism by means of labelled compounds is of great importance in biology. More details on the application of radionuclides and labelled compounds in medicine and other areas of the life sciences will be given in chapter 19. 

R. E. Weiner, M. L. Thakur, Metallic Radionuclides Applications in Diagnostic and Therapeutic Nuclear Medicine, Radiochim. Acta 70/71, 273 (1995)... 

Deterministic irradiation is applied in nuclear medicine for therapeutic purposes (chapter 19). For tumour treatment, large doses are delivered to selected tissues. Gamma rays emitted by °Co (up to 2 lO " Bq) or Cs (up to 2 lO Bq) are preferred for irradiation of deeply located organs. The doses transmitted to malignant tumours vary between about 10 and 100 Sv, and the individual responses of patients to certain radiation doses may vary appreciably. 

In general, p - and p" -Particles penetrate deep into the medium however, they do not cause damage to tissues and organs. Radionuclides that decay by p-Particle emissions are used very extensively in nuclear medicine for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Positron-emitting nuclides are used in nuclear medicine for diagnostic purposes. p+-Emitting radionuclides are under active study for use in radiotherapy. An example... 

Monoclonal antibodies exhibit a slow elimination from the blood, and accumulate in the liver. For these reasons, rapidly clearing antibody fragments are typically preferred for imaging applications in nuclear medicine. By contrast, intact immunoglobulins continue to represent the antibody format of choice for many therapeutic applications [15], which rely on the antibody s ability to interfere with signaling events, and to activate antibody-depen-... 

The number of technetium and rhenium tricarbonyl compounds in preclinical evaluation is remarkable. These efforts comprise small molecules as well as macromolecules useful in diagnostic and/or therapeutic nuclear medicine. There are also clinical data available with tumor affine peptides such as neurotensin receptor- and somatostatin receptor-targeting peptides radiolabeled with the Tc(CO)3 core. 

Labeling of blood cells has gained importance as routine procedure in nuclear medicine. A variety of different blood cells such as red blood cells (RBC), platelets, and white blood cells ([WBC] neutrophils, lymphocytes and monocytes and recently stem cells) can be radiolabeled and applied for diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring in specific disease states. 

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