Sunday, October 21, 2012

Fluorine 18 use in Nuclear Medicine

Fluorine-18 is used as a radioactive tracer in positron emission tomography (PET Scans) which is a nuclear medicine imaging machine. PET scans are used for diagnosing, staging and monitoring the treatment of different cancers. Fluordeoxyglucose (FDG) is a glucose substitute that includes Fluorine-18. Fluorine-18 is used as Fluordeoxyglucose in PET scans. PET scanners pick up and analyze the gamma rays that are made by positron emissions (radioactive decay fluorine-18 undergoes) of the Fluorine-18. Cancer cells absorb more FDG and emit more gamma rays which is why PET scans are able to show cancer. PET scans can find levels of gamma ray activity and translate that data into detailed images of the body's tissue (which is the main purpose of PET scans. 

PET scans also show the functions or non-functions of brain activity, basically how active the brain is working. Researchers can compare images of healthy brains to the patients with mental diseases so that they can better understand the different diseases that have an impact on brain activity. PET scans show what parts of the brain work when a person is doing different activities such as reading, eating, memorizing, walking or even the emotions of getting scared. Fluorine-18 makes these scans work because of its long half-life. 

You can use PET scans to monitor the effectiveness of treatments for a disease.




A whole-body PET scan image using 18F-FDG

Source:
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=pet+scans+fluorine-18&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1496&bih=868&tbm=isch&tbnid=YK9qHjGvfg9EEM:&imgrefurl=http://sitemaker.umich.edu/pet.chemistry/positron_emission_tomography&docid=5RY0H9JFNTs3dM&imgurl=http://sitemaker.umich.edu/pet.chemistry/files/fdg.jpg&w=340&h=280&ei=CY6EUJaHKor29gSV6IDoDQ&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=175&sig=111680760797274087944&page=1&tbnh=149&tbnw=182&start=0&ndsp=34&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:0,i:92&tx=108&ty=75


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positron_emission_tomography

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