Uses of Isotopes

Smoke Detectors and Americium-241 Ionization smoke detectors use an ionization chamber and a source of ionizing radiation to detect smoke. This type of smoke detector is more common because it is inexpensive and better at detecting the smaller amounts of smoke produced by flaming fires. Inside an ionization detector is a small amount (perhaps 1/5000th of a gram) of americium-241. The radioactive element americium has a half-life of 432 years, and is a good source of alpha particles. Another way to talk about the amount of americium in the detector is to say that a typical detector contains 0.9 microcurie of americium-241. A curie is a unit of measure for nuclear material. If you are holding a curie of something in your hand, you are holding an amount of material that undergoes 37,000,000,000 nuclear transformations per second. Generally, that means that 37 billion atoms in the sample are decaying and emitting a particle of nuclear radiation (such as an alpha particle) per second. One gram of of the element radium generates approximately 1 curie of activity (Marie Curie, the woman after whom the curie is named, did much of her research using radium). Food Irradiation Food irradiation is a method of treating food in order to make it safer to eat and have a longer shelf life. This process is not very different from other treatments such as pesticide application, canning, freezing and drying. The end result is that the growth of disease-causing microorganisms or those that cause spoilage are slowed or are eliminated altogether. This makes food safer and also keeps it fresh longer. Archaeological Dating Significant progress has been made in this field of study since the discovery of radioactivity and its properties. One application is carbon-14 dating. Recalling that all biologic organisms contain a given concentration of carbon-14, we can use this information to help solve questions about when the organism died. It works like this. When an organism dies it has a specific ratio by mass of carbon-14 to carbon-12 incorporated in the cells of it's body. (The same ratio as in the atmosphere.) At the moment of death, no new carbon-14 containing molecules are metabolized, therefore the ratio is at a maximum. After death, the carbon-14 to carbon-12 ratio begins to decrease because carbon-14 is decaying away at a constant and predictable rate. Remembering that the half-life of carbon-14 is 5700 years, then after 5700 years half as much carbon-14 remains within the organism. Geological Dating U-238 is used for dating rocks. U-238 (half-life of 4.5 billion years) decays to lead206. The ratio of U-238 to Pb-206, present in a rock, can be used to determine the age of a rock.

Tracing Chemical Vitamin B 12 can be tagged with a radioisotope of cobalt to study the absorption of the vitamin from the gastrointestinal tract. Compounds tagged with Fe-59 and Fe-55 are used to study the absorption of iron. Glucose tagged with carbon-11 (half-life, 20.3 minutes and positron decay mode) circulates through the body, and the positrons emitted in the heart, brain or some other organ are monitored by a PET detector. A computer uses this information to construct an image (called a PET scan) of the organ that is being examined. PET scans have been used to study the effects of drugs on cancers, to measure damage in victims of stroke or heart attack, and to study chemical changes that occur during epileptic seizures. Melvin Calvin, a biochemist, labeled CO2 with C-14 and worked out the process by which plants photosynthesize carbohydrate from CO2 and H2O Detection of Disease Iodine-131, a beta emitter, is taken as sodium iodide in drinking water. Almost all of it will find its way to the thyroid. The rate of iodine-131 uptake, determined with a Geiger counter or other scanning device, indicates whether the thyroid glands are functioning properly. Sodium chloride containing sodium-24, can be injected into the bloodstream to study blood circulation. The beta particles emitted by the sodium-24 are followed and an impaired circulation is immediately detected. A thallium-201 compound injected into the bloodstream will concentrate in normal heart muscle but will not remain in damaged tissue. A photograph with a nuclear scintillation camera allows the physician to locate the damaged areas. Technetium-99m is used for locating brain tumors and damaged heart cells.Technetium-99m is probably the most widely used radioisotope in medicine today; it is a decay product, of molybdenum-99.

Isotopes used in Medicine Many radioisotopes are made in nuclear reactors, some in cyclotrons. Generally neutron-rich ones need to be made in reactors; neutron-depleted ones are made in cyclotrons. Reactor Radioisotopes (half-life indicated) Molybdenum-99 (66 h): Used as the 'parent' in a generator to produce technetium99m. Technetium-99m (6 h): Used in to image the skeleton and heart muscle in particular, but also for brain, thyroid, lungs (perfusion and ventilation), liver, spleen, kidney (structure and filtration rate), gall bladder, bone marrow, salivary and lacrimal glands, heart blood pool, infection and numerous specialised medical studies. Bismuth-213 (46 min): Used for targeted alpha therapy (TAT), especially cancers. Chromium-51 (28 d): Used to label red blood cells and quantify gastro-intestinal protein loss. Cobalt-60 (10.5 mth): Formerly used for external beam radiotherapy. Copper-64 (13 h): Used to study genetic diseases affecting copper metabolism, such as Wilson's and Menke's diseases. Dysprosium-165 (2 h): Used as an aggregated hydroxide for synovectomy treatment of arthritis. Erbium-169 (9.4 d): Use for relieving arthritis pain in synovial joints. Holmium-166 (26 h): Being developed for diagnosis and treatment of liver tumours. Iodine-125 (60 d): Used in cancer brachytherapy (prostate and brain), also diagnostically to evaluate the filtration rate of kidneys and to diagnose deep vein thrombosis in the leg. It is also widely used in radioimmuno-assays to show the presence of hormones in tiny quantities. Iodine-131 (8 d): Widely used in treating thyroid cancer and in imaging the thyroid; also in diagnosis of abnormal liver function, renal (kidney) blood flow and urinary tract obstruction. A strong gamma emitter, but used for beta therapy. Iridium-192 (74 d): Supplied in wire form for use as an internal radiotherapy source for cancer treatment (used then removed).

Iron-59 (46 d): Used in studies of iron metabolism in the spleen. Lutetium-177 (6.7 d): Lu-177 is increasingly important as it emits just enough gamma for imaging while the beta radiation does the therapy on small (eg endocrine) tumours. Its half-life is long enough to allow sophisticated preparation for use. Palladium-103 (17 d): Used to make brachytherapy permanent implant seeds for early stage prostate cancer. Phosphorus-32 (14 d): Used in the treatment of polycythemia vera (excess red blood cells). Beta emitter. Potassium-42 (12 h): Used for the determination of exchangeable potassium in coronary blood flow. Rhenium-186 (3.8 d): Used for pain relief in bone cancer. Beta emitter with weak gamma for imaging. Rhenium-188 (17 h): Used to beta irradiate coronary arteries from an angioplasty balloon. Samarium-153 (47 h): Sm-153 is very effective in relieving the pain of secondary cancers lodged in the bone, sold as Quadramet. Also very effective for prostate and breast cancer. Beta emitter. Selenium-75 (120 d): Used in the form of seleno-methionine to study the production of digestive enzymes. Sodium-24 (15 h): For studies of electrolytes within the body. Strontium-89 (50 d): Very effective in reducing the pain of prostate and bone cancer. Beta emitter. Xenon-133 (5 d): Used for pulmonary (lung) ventilation studies. Ytterbium-169 (32 d): Used for cerebrospinal fluid studies in the brain. Ytterbium-177 (1.9 h): Progenitor of Lu-177. Yttrium-90 (64 h): Used for cancer brachytherapy and as silicate colloid for the relieving the pain of arthritis in larger synovial joints. Pure beta emitter. Radioisotopes of caesium, gold and ruthenium are also used in brachytherapy. Cyclotron Radioisotopes

Carbon-11, Nitrogen-13, Oxygen-15, Fluorine-18: These are positron emitters used in PET for studying brain physiology and pathology, in particular for localising epileptic focus, and in dementia, psychiatry and neuropharmacology studies. They also have a significant role in cardiology. F-18 in FDG (fluorodeoxyglucose) has become very important in detection of cancers and the monitoring of progress in their treatment, using PET. Cobalt-57 (272 d): Used as a marker to estimate organ size and for in-vitro diagnostic kits. Copper-64: tracer. Fluorine-18 as FLT (fluorothymidine), F-miso (fluoromisonidazole), 18F-choline: tracer. Gallium-67 (78 h): Used for tumour imaging and localisation of inflammatory lesions (infections). Indium-111 (2.8 d): Used for specialist diagnostic studies, eg brain studies, infection and colon transit studies. Iodine-123 (13 h): Increasingly used for diagnosis of thyroid function, it is a gamma emitter without the beta radiation of I-131. Iodine-124: tracer. Krypton-81m (13 sec) from Rubidium-81 (4.6 h): Kr-81m gas can yield functional images of pulmonary ventilation, e.g. in asthmatic patients, and for the early diagnosis of lung diseases and function. Rubidium-82 (65 h): Convenient PET agent in myocardial