Metastatic disease to bone is commonly seen in the advanced stages of many cancers. The cardinal symptom, pain, is often the cause of significant morbidity and reduced quality of life. Treatment of bone pain includes nonsteroidal analgesics and opiates; however, long-term use of these drugs is commonly associated with significant side effects, and tolerance is common. External-beam radiation th...

Learning Objectives: On successful completion of this activity, participants should be able to (1) define the advantages and disadvantages of the use of a-emitting radionuclide 223Ra-dichloride in the treatment of painful metastatic osseous metastasis; (2) recognize the indications and contraindications and define the prerequisites for administration of 223Ra-dichloride; and (3) apply and integ...

Radiopharmaceuticals for molecular imaging involve careful consideration of the following two factors: radionuclide selection and specificity to the molecular target. In selecting a radionuclide, the specific decay mode, physical half-life, chemical properties, and method of production must be considered. For proper design of a radiopharmaceutical which targets a specific biological or disease ...

Background Fast implementation of positron emission tomography (PET) into clinical and preclinical studies highly demands automated synthesis for the preparation of PET radiopharmaceuticals in a safe and reproducible manner. The aim of this study was to develop automated synthesis methods for these six 18F-labeled radiopharmaceuticals produced on a routine basis at the University of Pennsylvani...

During the years 1991–1997 the number of nuclear medicine (NM) laboratories and radionuclide investigations in Ukraine decreased significantly. The number of radioimmunoassays decreased by 2.2 times, functional radionuclide investigations fell by 4.6 times, scans and scintigraphies fell approximately by 10 times. The number of NM laboratories decreased from 81 in 1991 to 65 in 1998. Mainly this...

The accumulation of calcium-phosphate complexes in soft tissues is frequent in patients with autoimmune diseases such as dermatomyositis or polymyositis. It is hard to establish a diagnosis unless there is prominent muscle or skin involvement and biopsy is the procedure of choice to reveal the calcification. Whole-body bone scanning can be used in assessing the soft tissue calcification and the...

Radiopharmaceuticals are radiation-emitting substances used in medicine for radiotherapy and imaging diagnosis. A Research Institute, located in Rio de Janeiro, produces three radiopharmaceuticals: the sodium iodate is used in the diagnosis of thyroid dysfunctions, the meta-iodo-benzylguanidine is used in the diagnosis of cardiac diseases, and the fluordesoxyglucose is used in diagnosis in card...

This review covers the side effects and adverse reactions to radiopharmaceuticals that were reported in the literature over the past 25 years. The information published prior to 1970 is sporadic, but due to the increased utilization of nuclear medicine procedures and the recognition that radiopharmaceuticals may have pharmacologic side effects, a registry has existed since 1971 to tabulate info...