How are radioactive isotopes used to diagnose medical conditions?

How are radioactive isotopes used to diagnose medical conditions?

Radioisotopes are widely used to diagnose disease and as effective treatment tools. For diagnosis, the isotope is administered and then located in the body using a scanner of some sort. The decay product (often gamma emission) can be located and the intensity measured.

Why is it important that radioisotopes used in diagnostic tests?

It is important that radioisotopes used in diagnostic tests have short half-lives because it minimizes the harmful side effects of the radiation….

How long do radioactive isotopes stay in the body?

How long are the isotopes radioactive? This varies from isotope to isotope, but medically speaking, these isotopes usually have a half life any where from a few hours to several days. (Meaning that if an isotope has a half life of six hours, then the radiation will dissipate in a total of twelve hours.)

What are the side effects of radioactive isotopes?

effects: hair loss, skin burns, nausea, gastrointestinal distress, or death (Acute Radiation Syndrome). Long-term health risks include an increased cancer risk. Such risks depend upon the function of the specific radioisotope; and the route, magnitude, and duration of exposure.

What are the benefits of radioisotopes?

Radioactive isotopes have many useful applications. In medicine, for example, cobalt-60 is extensively employed as a radiation source to arrest the development of cancer. Other radioactive isotopes are used as tracers for diagnostic purposes as well as in research on metabolic processes.

What is the most common radioisotope used in medicine?

Tc-99
The radioisotope most widely used in medicine is Tc-99, employed in some 80% of all nuclear medicine procedures. It is an isotope of the artificially-produced element technetium and it has almost ideal characteristics for a nuclear medicine scan, such as with SPECT.

What are the risks of using radioisotopes?

Breathing in radioisotopes can damage DNA. Radioactive isotopes can sit in the stomach and irradiate for a long time. High doses can cause sterility or mutations. Radiation can burn skin or cause cancer.

Should someone accompany you to a stress test?

Friends/family are welcome to accompany you to the office but are not allowed in the testing area due to our privacy policy. Allow approximately 90 minutes for the test. Test results will be communicated to you by your physician.

Why are radioactive isotopes harmful to human life?

What are the disadvantages of radioisotopes?

Require nuclear reactors for production.

Is it safe to use radioactive isotopes in medicine?

How safe are radioactive isotopes? When used in carefully controlled medical applications, radioactive isotopes are safe and not nearly as scary as we first imagined. The radiation from these isotopes have a short half life and only give off low levels of radiation.

How are radioisotopes used in the medical field?

Today, radioisotopes are used both diagnostically and therapeutically in medicine. Radioisotopes are used to tag molecules that are expected to act in certain ways. The body treats the tagged and untagged compound in the same way. For example: Cr-51 labeled blood cells are used to measure rate of blood flow from the heart.

Why is the dose of radioactive isotopes low?

Very little, because of the way it decays. This is called “isomeric” process, and it involves the emitting of gamma rays and low energy electrons. The dose to the patient is low because there is no high energy beta emitted. How are radioactive isotopes used?

How many radioisotopes are used in Australia each year?

In Australia there are about 560,000 per year, 470,000 of these using reactor isotopes. The use of radiopharmaceuticals in diagnosis is growing at over 10% per year. Nuclear medicine was developed in the 1950s by physicians with an endocrine emphasis, initially using iodine-131 to diagnose and then treat thyroid disease.