Contents

#### **Preface VII**


Preface

 

> 

 

> 

 

ence levels of standard doses in nuclear medicine.

 

This book covers all aspects of nuclear medicine production of radionuclides and their uses for diagnosis, treatment, and instrumentation. Nuclear medicine is a powerful translational tool in the basic sciences, such as biology, in drug discovery, and in preclinical medicine. Im‐ provements in nuclear medicine are motivated by progress in this multidisciplinary science, which includes physics, chemistry, computing, mathematics, pharmacology, and biology. The book has been written for undergraduate and postgraduate students of medical physics who want to make the foundation of knowledge in this field stronger. It also serves as a re‐ source for interested readers from other disciplines, for example, clinicians, radiochemists, and medical technologists who would like to familiarize themselves with the basic concepts and practice of nuclear medicine physics. This book addresses an urgent need for a compre‐ hensive, contemporary text on the physics of nuclear medicine and aims to fill the knowledge gap between the available research concerning nuclear medicine and basic medical physics. The physics of nuclear medicine is explained in detail and, wherever possible, the physical interpretations are explained. The book's clarity, in terms of research, and completeness make it suitable for self-learning and for self-paced objectives. Here is a quick run-through of the basics: In the introductory chapter, we explain the discussion of nuclear medicine that in‐ volves the administration of trace quantities of radionuclides used to provide diagnostic in‐ formation in a diverse range of diseases. The second chapter incorporates radiation therapy in metastatic neuroblastoma. The role of radiotherapy as a palliative modality in patients with advanced neuroblastoma provides better symptomatic relief. The third chapter covers lowdose radiation-induced effects on white blood cell counts in guinea pigs. The fourth chapter addresses the positron emission tomography (PET) radiopharmaceuticals listed in the US Pharmacopeia (USP) or European Pharmacopeia (EP). PET radiopharmaceuticals listed in monographs of the latest USP and/or EP are included in this chapter. The fifth chapter tackles radiation protection in the routine practice of both diagnostic and therapeutic applications in nuclear medicine, including PET, diagnostic facility design, and safety aspects of common radionuclides used in clinics. The last chapter presents the development of diagnostic refer‐

> **Dr. Aamir Shahzad** Assistant Professor

Department of Physics

Pakistan

Molecular Modeling and Simulation Laboratory

Government College University Faisalabad

## Preface

 This book covers all aspects of nuclear medicine production of radionuclides and their uses for diagnosis, treatment, and instrumentation. Nuclear medicine is a powerful translational tool in the basic sciences, such as biology, in drug discovery, and in preclinical medicine. Im‐ provements in nuclear medicine are motivated by progress in this multidisciplinary science, which includes physics, chemistry, computing, mathematics, pharmacology, and biology. The book has been written for undergraduate and postgraduate students of medical physics who want to make the foundation of knowledge in this field stronger. It also serves as a re‐ source for interested readers from other disciplines, for example, clinicians, radiochemists, and medical technologists who would like to familiarize themselves with the basic concepts and practice of nuclear medicine physics. This book addresses an urgent need for a compre‐ hensive, contemporary text on the physics of nuclear medicine and aims to fill the knowledge gap between the available research concerning nuclear medicine and basic medical physics. The physics of nuclear medicine is explained in detail and, wherever possible, the physical interpretations are explained. The book's clarity, in terms of research, and completeness make it suitable for self-learning and for self-paced objectives. Here is a quick run-through of the basics: In the introductory chapter, we explain the discussion of nuclear medicine that in‐ volves the administration of trace quantities of radionuclides used to provide diagnostic in‐ formation in a diverse range of diseases. The second chapter incorporates radiation therapy in metastatic neuroblastoma. The role of radiotherapy as a palliative modality in patients with advanced neuroblastoma provides better symptomatic relief. The third chapter covers lowdose radiation-induced effects on white blood cell counts in guinea pigs. The fourth chapter addresses the positron emission tomography (PET) radiopharmaceuticals listed in the US Pharmacopeia (USP) or European Pharmacopeia (EP). PET radiopharmaceuticals listed in monographs of the latest USP and/or EP are included in this chapter. The fifth chapter tackles radiation protection in the routine practice of both diagnostic and therapeutic applications in nuclear medicine, including PET, diagnostic facility design, and safety aspects of common radionuclides used in clinics. The last chapter presents the development of diagnostic refer‐ ence levels of standard doses in nuclear medicine.

> **Dr. Aamir Shahzad**  Assistant Professor Molecular Modeling and Simulation Laboratory Department of Physics Government College University Faisalabad Pakistan

**Chapter 1**

**Provisional chapter**

**Introductory Chapter: Role of Nuclear Medicine in**

**Introductory Chapter: Role of Nuclear Medicine in** 

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.85606

The science of nuclear medicine (NM) involves the administration of trace quantities of radionuclide's that are used to provide diagnostic information in a diverse range of diseases. In its most basic form, a NM study comprises of injecting a radiopharmaceutical, a combination of specific pharmaceutical tagged with a gamma-ray-emitting radioactive tracer into the body. There are a number of pharmaceutical available which are used for specific organ imaging. It function is to carry gamma emitting radioisotope into a specific organ. When the radionuclide decays, gamma rays photons are emitted. The energy of these gamma photons is such that a large number of photons are exited from the body without being scattered or attenuated. These photons are later detected by a position-sensitive instruments called gamma camera or scintillation camera and form an image of the distribution of the radionuclide, and hence the compound to which it was attached. There are two classes of nuclear medicine imaging: single photon emission tomography which is essentially a single photon imaging and positron imaging. Single photon imaging usually comprises of either taking a planar image or a series of planar images around the body. A planar image is picture of radionuclide distribution in the patient from one angle. This results in an image having insufficient depth information, but which can still be diagnostically useful. In order to get depth information, data from various views are collected around the patient. This allows cross-sectional images of the distribution of the radionuclide which was later reconstructed employing specialized soft ware's (these software's use highly sophisticated algorithms), thus providing the depth information missing from planar imaging. Positron imaging uses radionuclide that decay by positron emission. The emitted positron usually has a very short lifetime and produces two high-energy photons after interacting with its counterpart electron. The two simultaneously emitted gamma photons having energies of 511 KeV subsequently are detected by an imaging

> © 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is 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.

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is 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.

**Medical Science**

**Medical Science**

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Aamir ShahzadAdditional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85606

Aamir Shahzad

**1. Introduction**
