Intro to Nuclear medicine Flashcards
What is radiopharmaceutical?
Patient is injected/ingests/inhales a radio-active isotope/nuclide combined with a pharmalogical agent
What is used to image the radipharamecutical?
Gamma cameras that detect radio activity being released from patients body
What 3 types of radioactivity can be emitted from the patient’s body?
Gamma rays
Positrons
other radiation partciles
What can imaging from gamma cameras be fused with?
CT images
What is a nuclide?
species of atom with specific atomic number and neutron number in a defined nuclear state
What are isotopes?
Group of nuclides with same proton number
What is de-excitation referred to as?
Decay
Define the biological half life?
Time taken for the concentration/amount of radio-activity in body to halve
What are 4 forms of radiation?
Alpha
beta
gamma
neutron
What is the commonly used isotope in nuclear medicine?
Techneytium-99m
What is Tc’s half life?
6.04 hours
What is a radiopharmaceutical a combination of?
Radionuclide (provide image) and chemical compound (carry radioactivity to target)
What radioactive element can exist on its own?
Radium 223
labelled blood cell
How many components are in the Gamma cameras?
7
What is the function of the collimator?
Controls amount and energy level of gamma photons allowed pass to scintillation crystals
What is Scintillation?
Light created when gamma photos hit crystal
What is the role of photomultiplyer tubes?
Amplify and convert light scintillations into proportional electrical/digital signal
What does the patient have to do before radiopharmaceutical imaging?
Hydrated
fast
stop medication
accompanied by an adult
stop breast feeding
What does the fusion of RNI and CT image assist?
Localization and characterization of increased/decreased areas of radiopharmaceutical uptake
What is the pathway and length of time at each stop in SPECT imaging determined by?
Radiographer and parameters selected
How is the PET/CT 3D image created?
By beta/positron emission using Fluorine18 FDG
What is PER/Ct imaging most commonly used for?
Oncology staging and planning
Which imaging is specific?
Gamma camera imaging
PET/CET is whole body
What diseases can SPECT/CT imaging be used for?
NM bone scan using Tc99m DPD
Cardiac Scintigraphy and cardiac stress/rest scan
Renal imaging
Oncology staging
What are 2 pros for PSMA Ga68 for prostrate cancer imaging?
Generated onsite
lower patient dose
What are 3 cons for PSMA Ga68 for prostrate cancer imaging?
lower beta emission
higher energy in each photon -> reduce image quality
global reduction in image quality
