Production of Radionuclides

All

radionuclides

commonly

administered to patients in nuclear medicine are artificially produced Most are produced reactors, by or cyclotrons, radionuclide

nuclear

generators through bombardment or fission

1. Cyclotrons
Cyclotrons produce radionuclides by bombarding stable nuclei with high-

energy charged particles

Most cyclotron-produced radionuclides

are neutron poor and therefore decay by

positron emission or electron capture

>Specialized hospital-based cyclotrons have been developed to produce positron-emitting radionuclides for positron emission tomography (PET)
>Usually located near the PET imager because of short half-lives of the radionuclides produced

2. Nuclear Reactors
Specialized nuclear reactors used to produce clinically useful

radionuclides from fission products or neutron activation of stable target material

>Uranium-235 fission products can be chemically separated from other fission products. >Concentration of these carrier-free
fission-produced radionuclides is very

high

Neutron Activation
Neutrons produced by the fission of uranium in a nuclear reactor can be used to create radionuclides by bombarding stable target material placed in the reactor

>Process involves capture neutrons by stable nuclei

of

>Almost all radionuclides produced by neutron activation decay by beta-minus particle emission

3. Radionuclide Generators

A generator is a self-contained system housing a parent/daughter mixture in equilibrium. There must be a method of removing the daughter and leaving the parent behind to regenerate more daughter activity.

It is designed to produce the daughter for some purpose separate from the parent.

Generators produce certain short-lived radioisotopes on-site which cannot be shipped by commercial sources. To be useful, the parent's half-life must be long compared to the travel time required to transport the generator to recipient. The typical shelf-life of a Mo/Tc generator is 2 weeks, as is the expiration date.

the process of removing the daughter from the generator is referred to as elution;

the

solution

used

to

remove

the

daughter is called the eluent;

and the solution collected from the generator containing the daughter radioisotope is called the eluate.

 Technetium-99m

has

been

the

most important radionuclide used in

nuclear medicine
Short half-life (6 hours) makes it impractical to store even a weekly supply

 Supply problem overcome by obtaining parent Mo-99, which has a longer half-life (67 hours) and continually produces Tc-99m
A system for holding the parent in such a way that the daughter can be easily separated for clinical use is called a radionuclide generator

1. Generator output must be sterile and pyrogen-free. 2. The chemical properties of the daughter must be different than those of the parent to permit separation of daughter from parent.

3. Generator should be eluted with 0.9% saline solution and should involve no violent chemical reactions. 4.Daughter isotope for diagnostic studies should be short-lived gammaemitting nuclides.

5. Inexpensive, effective shielding of generator, minimizing radiation dose to those using it.

This is easy to accomplish since lead is very dense and therefore a good attenuator of radiation.

DRY column generator

The saline supply is in a 30-ml bottle/vial for elution Because saline used never exceeds 20ml, up to 10ml of air follow the saline through the fluid path, effectively drying the column

WET column generator

The saline supply is a 500ml bottle and is an integral part of the generator Once elution is completed, the fluid path is filled with a saline for the life of the generator and the alumina column is always saturated with 0.9% NaCl solution

Equilibrium

is a condition established in a parent/daughter mixture when both parent and daughter are radioactive and when the daughters half-life is shorter than that of the parent. if the daughters half-life exceeds that of the parent, equilibrium will never be reached.

Transient Equilibrium
-is a condition reached when the half-life of the parent is approximately 10 times greater than the half-life of the daughter.

Secular Equilibrium

-if the half-life of the parent is very much longer than that of the daughter (e.g., more than 100 longer).

99Mo/99mTc GENERATOR: PRINCIPLES OF OPERATION

1. Prior to shipping the generator to the

Nuclear Medicine Department, 99Mo

sodium molybdate is immobilized on a

column of alumina (Al2O3; aluminum

oxide).

2. 0.9% saline solution (the eluent) is passed through the column and Na pertechnetate, the daughter of 99Mo decay, is eluted from the column with high efficiency due to its almost total lack of affinity for alumina.

3. The pertechnetate is collected in a

shielded, evacuated sterile vial and

must undergo quality control testing,

then must be calibrated prior to use. It

is referred to as the eluate.

99Mo/99mTc GENERATOR

is considered to be the workhorse of all generators and is ideal with no significant limitations used in almost 80% of nuclear scan performed

Commonly Transported Radioisotopes

*Americium-241= Diagnose thyroid disorders, smoke detectors.

*Cesium-137= Cancer treatment.

*Iodine-125,131= Diagnosis & treatment liver, kidney,heart, lung and brain.

*Technetium-99m=Bone and brain imaging; thyroid and liver studies; localization of brain tumors.

6. Low radiation dose 7. Safe 8. Convenient

9. Cost-effective

QC program is especially important in

two main areas:

Instrumentation Radiopharmaceutical preparation

Instrumentation:

Well counters Dose calibrators Thyroid probes

Gamma camera

QC for Gamma Camera

Spatial resolution Uniformity Image linearity Energy resolution Count rate response Sensitivity Collimator integrity Formatter performance Whole-body accessory Window setting Weekly Daily (before first patient) Weekly Annually Annually Annually Annually or when suspicious of damage Annually Annually For each patient

Radiopharmacy

Generator and radionuclide purity Radiochemical labeling

Sterility

Operation and routine QA

Energy discrimination windows

must be adjusted to center them on

the photopeak or photopeaks of the

desired radionuclide

Operation and routine QA (cont.)

Uniformity of the camera should be assessed daily and after each repair May be made intrinsically by using a Tc-99m point source

 Images must contain enough counts that quantum mottle does not mask uniformity defects Uniformity test will reveal most malfunctions camera of a scintillation

Other QA
Spatial resolution and spatial linearity should be assessed at least weekly

Efficiency of each camera head

should be measured periodically

 Complete annually

evaluation

at

least

Include multienergy spatial registration and count-rate performance

QC for Gamma Camera

Peaking
Counting Rate

Field Uniformity
Spatial Resolution Spatial Linearity Sensitivity

Gamma Camera Quality Control

QC Procedure
Peaking

Frequency
Daily & before each new radionuclide used

Counting rate limits

Field uniformity Spatial resolution Spatial linearity Sensitivity

Daily
Daily, after repair Weekly, after repair Weekly, after repair Quarterly

QC Procedures for Gamma Camera

Peaking

Energy

discrimination

windows

must be adjusted to center them on the photopeak or photopeaks of the desired radionuclide.

 Peaking may be done manually by adjusting the energy window settings while viewing the spectrum or automatically by the camera Should be peaked before first use each day and before imaging a different radionuclide

 Small

source

used

to

peak

camera;
by the

radiation
patient

emitted

would have a large scatter component.

QC Procedures for Gamma Camera

Counting Rate Limits
Sensitivity of a gamma camera generally decreases with increased amounts of activity. During the high activity the detector is paralyzed & cannot count. Dead Time is the systems inability to count

QC Procedures for Gamma Camera

Field Uniformity
Refers to the gamma cameras ability to detect a uniform source of radiation
Uniformity depends on the uniform response of the NaI crystal & the PMTs.

Intrinsic Uniformity Flood

A. Field Uniformity Flood

B. Non-uniform Flood

Intrinsic Uniformity Flood

A, B, C. Damage PMT

D. Cracked Crystal

 Uniformity can be: intrinsically (w/o collimator) extrinsically (w/ collimator)

May be made intrinsically by using a Tc-99m point source

Edge packing is the phenomenon that can show up as a bright rim activity around the perimeter of the flood.

Extrinsic uniformity Two common radionuclide sources used: acrylic plastic (Plexiglas) container filled w/ H2O 1-10mCi Tc-99m solid-sealed 10 mCi cobalt-57 sheet Extrinsic can be evaluate/assess the defects of the collimator

Extrinsic Uniformity Flood

Damaged Collimator

 Images must contain enough counts that quantum mottle does not mask uniformity defects

Uniformity

test

will

reveal

most

malfunctions of a scintillation camera

 Spatial resolution gamma cameras ability to reproduce small details of a radioactive distribution.
Required to be performed a minimum of once a week on every imaging system

Spatial Linearity gamma cameras ability to produce a linear image w/ straight lines corresponding to the same straight lines of the bar pattern.

Sensitivity
Performed to determine the gamma camera detectors ability to detect the ionizing event that occur in the NaI crystal. Events recorded as counts per minute are calculated and expressed as cpm per microcurie of acitivity present Performed biannualy

Sealed Radioactive Source

NRC requires that all photo-emitting sealed sources containing 100 Ci or more be tested for leakage biannualy. USNRC stated that any sealed sources with more than 0.005 Ci of removable activity per test must immediately be removed, properly stored, and reported to the NRC. NRC requires that all sealed sources be inventoried and surveyed quarterly for radiation exposure.

Radionuclide Generator
Two common generators used:

Molybdenum-99
Technetium-99m QC is essential on the Technetium eluent each time generator is eluted, to ensure that the eluent does not contain any contaminants or impurities including radionuclide impurity of Mo-99, molybdate, chemical impurity of Al+3, alumina, or radiochemical impurity of hydrolyzed reduced technetium(HR-Tc).

Radiation Protection

The basis for all radiation protection activities is the supposition that radiation is harmful and that the smaller the radiation doses we receive, the smaller are the risks.

Justification- no practice involving exposures to radiation should be adopted unless it produces sufficient benefit Optimization- individual doses, number of people exposed and occurrence of exposures should be kept ALARA Individual dose and risk limits- the exposure of individuals from the combination of all relevant practices is subject to dose limits

Cardinal Principles
Shielding: If you have a thick shield between yourself and the radioactive material, more of the radiation will be absorbed by the thick shield, and you will be exposed to less rays.

Time: Minimizing the time spent with the radioactive source will also reduce radiation risks.

Distance: The farther you are from the radioactive source,the lower your exposure. Thus reducing the probable risks.