Preface

Chapter 7 **Nuclear Analytical Techniques in Animal Sciences: New**

A.C. Avelar, W.M. Ferreira and M.A.B.C. Menezes

**Approaches and Outcomes 179**

**VI** Contents

The last quarter of the last century has witnessed major advancements that have brought imaging and radioanalytical techniques to a paramount status in life sciences and industry. Generally speaking, the scope of radiation imaging and radioanalytics covers data acquisi‐ tion, data processing, and data analysis, involving theories, methods, systems and applica‐ tions. While detection and post-processing techniques become increasingly sophisticated, traditional and emerging modalities play more and more critical roles in medical and indus‐ trial domains. The overall goal of this book is to promote research and development of imaging and radioanalytical techniques by publishing high-quality chapters in this rapidly growing interdisciplinary field.

This book is intended to serve as a text for students and a reference for practicing physicists and physicians. Emphasis is given to the broad prospective, particularly for topics impor‐ tant to medical and radar imaging and radioanalytics, with basic coverage provided in such supporting areas as computed tomography , nuclear medical imaging , neutron activation analysis, and applications. Thus, the purpose of the book is to provide a tutorial overview on the subject of imaging and radioanalytical techniques including: Computed Tomography (CT), Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT), Positron Emission Tomog‐ raphy (PET), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Ground Penetrating Radar Imaging Meth‐ od, and Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA). We expect the book to be useful for practicing scientists for gaining an understanding of what can and cannot done all these imaging and radioanalytical techniques. Toward this end, we have tried to strike a balance among purely mathematical and physical issues, topics dealing with how to generate data and data proc‐ essing and analysis for different applications cases.

Our hope is that the style of presentation used will also make the bock useful for a begin‐ ning graduate course on the subject. The survey on we have included in chapter 1 should help the reader to understand the principles of nuclear imaging techniques, to be informed on the actual technologic advances in the fabrication of more sophisticated machines and finally to appreciate the powerful aspect of these techniques through the presentation of some examples of recent applications developed at famous laboratories and medical imag‐ ing centers around the world.

The book is organized in two sections including in total seven chapters which cover a wide variety of very interesting topics. In the first section there are five chapters on different med‐ ical and radar imaging techniques and their applications. In the first chapter Faycal Kharfi presents basis and applications of nuclear imaging techniques aimed more specifically to graduate students. In the second chapter, Mariluce Gonçalves Fonseca describes Spin Echo Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) fundamentals and applications with the presentation of fascinating examples. Chapter 3 by Samuel Opoku et al. summarizes the assessment of safe‐

ty standards of MRI. Kharfi Faycal (chapter 4) provides a comprehensive overview of math‐ ematical and physical principles of CT and image reconstruction. In chapter 5, Selma Kadioglu provides a fascinating overview on ground penetrating radar method and its ap‐ plication for the visualization of micro-fractures in historical statues. Second section of this book focuses on radioanalytical techniques and exclusively on neutron activation analysis method. Two chapters (6 and 7) are devoted to this technique and its applications in differ‐ ent domains such as environment, animal sciences, biomedicine and geology. In chapter 6, Lylia Hamidatou et al. discuss concepts, instrumentation and applications of NAA with a very interesting illustrations and examples. An overview on recent NAA developments and practical applications performed at the author's laboratory is presented in this chapter. Chapter 7 by Artur Canella Avelar and Walter Motta Ferreira is dedicated to Nuclear Ana‐ lytical Techniques application in Animal Sciences. The objective of the application presented in this last chapter is to assess uranium content in rock phosphates and rabbit muscles re‐ ceiving this uranium by Neutron Activation Analysis and this for public health concern.

The lists of references by no means constitute a complete bibliography on the studied topics. No value judgments should be implied by our including or excluding a particular works that maybe judged as excellent references. Some chapters of this book provide a description of innovative equipments and instruments fabricated by international companies and specif‐ ic applications developed at worldwide laboratories. We did our best to mention the source of this kind of information each time it is judged necessary. The information collected and presented in this book are to be only used for an education and research purpose and cannot be considered anyway as an advertisement for a product or a service. The authors do not endorse any equipment or material cited in this book.

We have attempted to provide a broad overview of the potential of imaging and radioana‐ lytical methods covering the fields of medical imaging, radar imaging and multielement analysis. It is evident that in this book we have omitted some other important methods and related areas of application. Nevertheless we hope that the readers enjoy this edition and will be stimulated to read further.

The editor wants to thank all the authors participating to this book by their high level and valuable chapters. Thanks are due to Prof. M. Maamache, Dean of the Faculty of Science (UFAS), for giving me the chance to teach in the field of biomedical imaging and engineer‐ ing and thus to be involved in such passionate field of science. I would to thank Prof. A. Boucenna who was my supervisor and advisor during many years of my scientific carrier. I am also grateful to the INTECH book Manager Ms. Iva Simcic for her assistance in the different edition phases of this book.

Finally, I wish to thank my wife for her help and encouragement during the preparation and edition of the book.

> **Dr. Faycal Kharfi** Department of Physics Faculty of Science University of Ferhat Abbas-UFAS Sétif Algeria

**Section 1**

**Medical and GPR Imaging Techniques:**

**Principles, Applications and Safe Utilizations**

**Medical and GPR Imaging Techniques: Principles, Applications and Safe Utilizations**

ty standards of MRI. Kharfi Faycal (chapter 4) provides a comprehensive overview of math‐ ematical and physical principles of CT and image reconstruction. In chapter 5, Selma Kadioglu provides a fascinating overview on ground penetrating radar method and its ap‐ plication for the visualization of micro-fractures in historical statues. Second section of this book focuses on radioanalytical techniques and exclusively on neutron activation analysis method. Two chapters (6 and 7) are devoted to this technique and its applications in differ‐ ent domains such as environment, animal sciences, biomedicine and geology. In chapter 6, Lylia Hamidatou et al. discuss concepts, instrumentation and applications of NAA with a very interesting illustrations and examples. An overview on recent NAA developments and practical applications performed at the author's laboratory is presented in this chapter. Chapter 7 by Artur Canella Avelar and Walter Motta Ferreira is dedicated to Nuclear Ana‐ lytical Techniques application in Animal Sciences. The objective of the application presented in this last chapter is to assess uranium content in rock phosphates and rabbit muscles re‐ ceiving this uranium by Neutron Activation Analysis and this for public health concern. The lists of references by no means constitute a complete bibliography on the studied topics. No value judgments should be implied by our including or excluding a particular works that maybe judged as excellent references. Some chapters of this book provide a description of innovative equipments and instruments fabricated by international companies and specif‐ ic applications developed at worldwide laboratories. We did our best to mention the source of this kind of information each time it is judged necessary. The information collected and presented in this book are to be only used for an education and research purpose and cannot be considered anyway as an advertisement for a product or a service. The authors do not

We have attempted to provide a broad overview of the potential of imaging and radioana‐ lytical methods covering the fields of medical imaging, radar imaging and multielement analysis. It is evident that in this book we have omitted some other important methods and related areas of application. Nevertheless we hope that the readers enjoy this edition and

The editor wants to thank all the authors participating to this book by their high level and valuable chapters. Thanks are due to Prof. M. Maamache, Dean of the Faculty of Science (UFAS), for giving me the chance to teach in the field of biomedical imaging and engineer‐ ing and thus to be involved in such passionate field of science. I would to thank Prof. A. Boucenna who was my supervisor and advisor during many years of my scientific carrier. I am also grateful to the INTECH book Manager Ms. Iva Simcic for her assistance in the

Finally, I wish to thank my wife for her help and encouragement during the preparation and

**Dr. Faycal Kharfi** Department of Physics Faculty of Science

> Sétif Algeria

University of Ferhat Abbas-UFAS

endorse any equipment or material cited in this book.

will be stimulated to read further.

different edition phases of this book.

edition of the book.

VIII Preface

**Chapter 1**

**Principles and Applications of Nuclear Medical Imaging:**

The main difference between nuclear imaging and other radiologic tests is that nuclear imaging assesses how organs function, whereas other imaging methods assess anatomy, or how the organs look. The advantage of assessing the function of an organ is that it helps physicians make a diagnosis and plan present or future treatments for the part of the body being evaluated. Fast improvements in engineering and computing technologies have made it possible to acquire high-resolution multidimensional nuclear images of complex organs to analyze structural and functional information of human physiology for computer-assisted diagnosis, treatment evaluation, and intervention. Technological inventions and develop‐ ments have created new possibilities and breakthroughs in nuclear medical diagnostics. The classic example is the discovery of Anger, fifty six years ago. The application and commer‐ cial success of new nuclear imaging methods depends mainly on three primary factors: sensitivity, specificity and cost effectiveness. The first two determine the added clinical value, in comparison with existing medical imaging methods. Nowadays, much greater impor‐ tance is attached to cost effectiveness than in the past. This also holds true for diagnostic equipment where, for example, one of the consequences is that price erosion will occur where the functionality of an instrument is not open to further development. Cost effectiveness is enhanced by more efficient data handling in the hospitals, which has become possible through the digitization of diagnostic information. The inevitable integration of medical data also offers other new possibilities, such as the use of pre-operatively acquired images during

This chapter presents the principles of nuclear imaging methods and some cases studies and future trends of nuclear imaging. It discusses too the recent developments in image analysis and the possible impact of some important current technological progression on nuclear

> © 2013 Kharfi; licensee InTech. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

© 2013 Kharfi; licensee InTech. This is a paper distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

**A Survey on Recent Developments**

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Faycal Kharfi

**1. Introduction**

surgical procedures.

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/54884
