Radioactive substances in medicine 3 Flashcards
1
Q
What is PET
A
- Positron Emission Tomography
2
Q
What are the radionuclides used in PET scanning and half lives
A
- 11C - 20 min
- 13N - 10 min
- 15O - 2 min
- 18F - 110 min
3
Q
Describe radionuclides used in PET
A
- beta + emitting isotopes with short half-lives
- Cyclotron made
4
Q
Describe how PET works
A
- Radio nuclei emits a beta+ which meets an electron and produces 2 gamma rays 180 degrees from each other
5
Q
Describe 18F-FDG
A
- Taken up by cells and retained by tissues with high metabolic activity (diseased) such as the brain or most types of malignant tumours
- But low specificity
6
Q
Describe production of PET tracers
A
- Can be produced in a cyclotron or in a generator
- During synthesis a radionuclide may be attached to a targeting molecule (antibody, protein, peptide etc) to develop an imaging agent
- After administration the imaging agent gravitates to the target
- The positrons released from the target travel in the tissue until they meet their anti-particle i.e. electron and a coincidence happens causing release of gamma rays
- PET camera is able to detect these gamma-rays and with mathematical image construction a 3D image is received
7
Q
What is a difference between cyclotron and generator
A
- Cyclotron is relatively large
- Generator quite small
8
Q
What is a positron mean free path
A
- Average distance travelled by this moving particle between successive collisions modifying its direction or energy/other properties
9
Q
What happens after injection of a tracer compound labelled with PET isotope into a subject
A
- The subject is placed within the field of view of a number of detectors capable of registering incident gamma rays
- The radionuclide in the radiotracer decays and the resulting positron subsequently annihilate on contact with electrons after travelling a short distance within the body
10
Q
Describe the path of positrons
A
- As they travel through human tissue they give up kinetic energy by Couloumb interactions with electrons
- Mass is about the same as electrons so may undergo large deviations in direction with each interaction
- Once at thermal energy they interact with electrons by annihilation which produces two photons (gamma rays) which are detected
11
Q
Describe detection in PET
A
- PET camera detectors generate a timed pulse when it registers an incident photon
- Detector electronics are linked so two detection events (pulses) unambiguously occurring within a certain time window may be called a coincident and this be determined to have come from the same annihilation
- These events can be stored in arrays corresponding to projections through the patient and reconstructed using tomographic techniques
- Resulting images show tracer distribution throughout the body of the subject
12
Q
What type of isotopes tend to decay by positron emission
A
- Proton-rich
- Proton in nucleus decays to a neutron, positron, and a neutrino
- Daughter isotope has an atomic number one less than the parent
13
Q
Why are coincident gamma rays good
A
- No need for a physical collimator as electronic collimation
- Electronic collimation has improved sensitivity and improved uniformity of the point source response function
- For physical collimators, directional info is gained by preventing photons which are not normal or nearly normal to the collimator face from falling on the detector
- In electronic collimation, these photons may be detected and used as signal- increased sensitivity
- This means typical realisable image resolution in PET is around 5-10 mm compared to SPECT which is 15-20 mm- only v large tumours
- Resolution of reconstructed PET images is more uniform than SPECT
- PET is superior to SPECT resolution wise and significantly superior to MRI or CT
14
Q
What is radiolabelling
A
- The application of known synthetic methods to target molecules in which at least one atom is present as an isotope other than its naturally most abundant one
- Molecules that contain such an isotope are referred to being labelled because such isotopically distinct atoms serve to mark the molecule denoted a marker for later detection
15
Q
What are the most useful compounds in PET
A
- [18F]FDG (Fluorodeoxyglucose)- metabolic imaging
- 13NH3 - blood flow
- 15O2, H2 15O (H2O)- blood flow
- 82Rb-Chloride- myocardial perfusion- accumulates in heart muscle