Nuclear Medicine Flashcards
john dalton - considered the father of the modern theory of atoms and molecules
1803
wilhelm roentgen discovered xray
1895
henri bacquerel discovered naturally occurring radioactive substances
1896
marie curie discovered two new elements in the uranium ore pitchblende; she named them polonium and radium
1898
george de hevesy, considered that father of nuclear medicine, developed the tracer principle and coined the term radionindicator
1923
ernest lawrence invented the cyclotron device used to produce (man-made) radioactive tracers
1931
hal anger introduced gamma camera
1958
david edwards and roy kuhl developed a crude single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) camera which allowed creation of 3D images
1960
SPECT imaging became standard practive
1980s
medical specialty focuses on the use of radioactive materials for diagnosis, therapy, and medical research
nuclear medicine
radioactive drug used for diagnosis or therapy
radiopharmaceuticals
radioactiong iostope used to allow a biological process to be seen
tracer
device that uses the emission of light from a cyrstal struck by gamma rays to produce an image of the distribution of radioactive material in a body organ
gamma or scintillation camera
creates transaxial images of organ physiology
position emission tomography (PET)
occurs when a posistion interacts with a free electron
positron annihilation
may have 30 t0 60 rings, each ring has as many as 1000 detectors
PET gantry
images that relates anatomic position
functional or prarmetric image
describes an atomic species with a particular arrangement of protons and neutrons in the nucleus
nuclide
elements with the same number of protons and electrons but different number of neutrons
isotopes
determines stability of atom
at certain ratios atoms are unstable
neutron-to-proton ratio
process that occurs when atoms attempt to regain stability
spontaneous decay
unique to each radionuclide
decay schemes
time it takes for a quantity of a particular radionuclide to decay to one half its origianl activity
ranges from several hours to several days
half-life
produced in reactors or particle accelerators
naturally occuring ones have very long half-lives
unsuitable for nulcear medicine imaging
radionuclides
most commonly used and produced in generators
technetium-99
sterile and phyrogen free
must undergo quality control measures
radiopharmaceuticals
two components of radiopharmaceuticals
radionuclide
pharmaceutical
can be bound to biologically active compounds or drugs to create a radiopharmaceutical
technetium
measure of radioactivity
corresponds to the decay rate
becquerel (Bq)
acquistion of a single image of a particular structure
lung scans; spot bone scan; thyroid scan
static image
specifically designed moving detector produces image of the whole body
whole body imaging
displays the distribution of radiopharmaceutical over a specific period
gastric emptying and first pass cardiac studies
dynamic imaging
creates thin slices of an oragan similar to CT and MRI
myocardial, perfusion, liver, tumor, and parathyroid studies
SPECT imaging
means within the body
vivo examinations
survey to evaluate patiens with diffues musculoskeleta symptoms, metabolic disorders, or malignancies
bone scintigraphy
noninvasive studies that assess cardiac performance
nuclear cardiology
document extent of involvement of brain by tumors and determine progression or regression of lesions
central nervous system
includes the thyroid, parathyroid, pituitary, suprarenal glands, islet cells of the panceras and the gonads
endocrine system
liver/spleen scan and GI studies
gastroinstestinal system
reliable, noninvasive procedures for evaluation the anatomy and function of nephrology, urology, and kidney
dynamic renal scan
genitourinay system
potential for detecting and treating cancer
therapeuitic nuclear medicine
evaluation of physiolgic function
in vitro & in vitro hermatologic studies
diagnostic tool in evaluation inflammation, infection and abcess
imaging for infection
evaluate pulmonary emboli, chronic bronchitis asthma
respiratory imaging
contrast lymphangiography, MRI, and CT methods to evaluate status of lymph nodes
sentinel node
