[ RadSafe ] Cl-36 in Nuclear Medicine?

[Brennan, Mike (DOH)]

I believe that Cl-36 is used as a source of positrons (Antimatter! It's
not just for Star Trek anymore!).  Positrons are used in Positron
Emission Tomography (PET), which uses the fact that when a positron
encounters an electron they mutually annihilate and produce photons
traveling in exactly opposite directions.  Using some seriously good
detectors and some non-trivial software, the photons can be used to
provide imaging good enough to make your brain explode (which, I
believe, a PET scan could capture for later examination).  

As chlorine has a ten day biological half life, the stay time of the
Cl-36 isn't too great (I don't know what amounts are administered).  I
imagine that this could be hurried along by increasing salt and liquid
intake, though as I am not a doctor, I am not prescribing potato chips
and beer as a post-procedure regime.     

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of
jearadrat at aol.com
Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2010 2:05 PM
To: radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu
Subject: [ RadSafe ] Cl-36 in Nuclear Medicine?



Good afternoon, all:

In a reqcent company training session, one of my fellow technicians
mentioned that a nuclear medicine application was being developed for
chlorine-36.  Considering the VERY long (3E5 yrs) half-life, what
possible patient application can there be for this?  Or is it possible
some erroneous information is being spread?

Thanks in advance,
John Aperans, RRPT
Clinton, TN USA


P.S. Please be gentle, this is my first post.
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