beamjockey (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
beamjockey) wrote2007-12-10 12:31 pm
beamjockey) wrote2007-12-10 12:31 pm
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What Did You Do with the Technetium-99m I Gave You Yesterday?
An alternate title might be
Roger Z brought in a clipping about account of a technetium-99m shortage.
My first thought on skimming this was "There's always a technetium-99m shortage. There's always going to be a technetium-99m shortage."
Technetium-99m has a six-hour half-life.
Alas, the news proves to be non-trivial. Hospitals obtain fresh technetium-99m from a supply of molybdenum-99, which has a 66-hour half-life, with 99mTc as a decay product. Make the molybdenum isotope in a reactor, transport it to hospitals, then "milk" fresh technetium from a solution containing 99Mo. This works for many days, then eventually fresh 99Mo is needed.
If the Chalk River reactor is down for a few days, no problem. If it's down for several weeks, trouble.
Inject All You Want. We'll Make More!
Roger Z brought in a clipping about account of a technetium-99m shortage.
My first thought on skimming this was "There's always a technetium-99m shortage. There's always going to be a technetium-99m shortage."
Technetium-99m has a six-hour half-life.
Alas, the news proves to be non-trivial. Hospitals obtain fresh technetium-99m from a supply of molybdenum-99, which has a 66-hour half-life, with 99mTc as a decay product. Make the molybdenum isotope in a reactor, transport it to hospitals, then "milk" fresh technetium from a solution containing 99Mo. This works for many days, then eventually fresh 99Mo is needed.
If the Chalk River reactor is down for a few days, no problem. If it's down for several weeks, trouble.
no subject
Chalk River has, until the last few days, been producing nigh on 70% of some isotopes, since one or more reactors elsewhere in the world were down.
Next year, we are putting in a PET/CT scanner and a cyclotron to 'feed' it - or rather, feed the patients. We'll still be dependant on Chalk River et al for ordinary nuc med however.