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Crisis looms for nuclear medicine: demand for research and radioisotopes exceeds supply, funding.
- Article from:
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ASRT Scanner
- Article date:
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April 1, 2008
- Author:
- Odle, Teresa
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Copyright informationCOPYRIGHT 2008 American Society of Radiologic Technologists. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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You don't watch the morning news on a 1958 RCA black-and-white television; your family went high definition just before the Super Bowl. You don't drive to work in a 1957 Chevy Bel Air, unless it's a heavily reconditioned classic. And when you arrive in the nuclear medicine department, you don't image patients on a 1959 Picker three-inch rectilinear scanner; you sit before the PET scanner's computer screen.
So does it surprise you that the radiopharmaceuticals you use with the latest nuclear medicine technologies were produced using isotopes from a reactor that's as old as the black-and-white TV showing "The Jack Benny Show" or "Howdy Doody"? And ...