Tc-99m Research Paper

Technetium-99m, or Tc-99m is the world’s most widely used medical nuclear isotope for diagnostic imaging. In its name, the ‘m’ of 99m describes indicates the metastability of the particular radionuclide. This metastability is the ability for a certain energy state of the radionuclide to exist indefinitely until, whether spontaneously or because of outside factors, it changes to the much more stable Tc-99, with a half-life of over 210,000 years. Technetium-99m is used as a radioactive tracer which can be taken orally or injected and can be used to detect internal blockages with the use of a gamma camera. With such a short biological half-life of one day, Tc-99m is well suited for scanning procedures that can collect data quickly and doesn’t …show more content…
The most common use for iodine-131 is for the killing of thyroid cancer cells. The way this works is Thyroid cancer cells take up the iodine just as they would normally take up normal iodine. The Thyroid gland containing the cancer then has an accumulation of radioactive iodine-131, it gives off short range damaging beta radiation. This particular treatment has the benefit of being fairly localised with beta radiation not spreading far around the body, this keeps tissue damage mostly limited over the intended area. After the use of iodine-131 by a patient the majority of the radionuclide clears the body after around three days through radioactive decay and also through sweating and urination. For this reason, patient isolation is advised due to iodine-131 being a gamma radiation emitter. Radioactive iodine may still be present in small amounts in the weeks after administration due to the thyroid gland producing hormones with radioactive iodine instead of normal iodine. Due to the risk of second hand contamination regular cleaning of the clothes, bedding, toilets and other items used by the patient is recommended. The use of bleach cleaners, however can cause the release of radioactive iodine gas which, if inhaled can cause cancer and have other health effects. Use of iodine-131 may cause a patient to trigger radiation detectors at …show more content…
Cobalt-60 decays via beta radiation to Nickel-60 and also releases strong gamma radiation. This gamma radiation can only be effectively stopped with several centimetres of lead and so has no problem passing straight through metal equipment in order to sterilise it. As the gamma rays travel through the equipment, they kill any living creature such as bacteria or viruses. With a reasonably long half-life of over five years, it is a good choice of equipment for sterilisation as it will give off strong gamma radiation without needing to be replaced very often. The security of transport containers for Cobalt-60 is very important not just to prevent accidental exposure but also to prevent the theft or sabotage of the nuclear material. For this reason the containers are made of exceptionally thick and strong steel and lead containers to keep the radiation in and terrorists out but unfortunately these are very heavy, so require lots of energy to move