Re: Nuclear Medicine Question

[carol marcus <csmarcus@ucla.edu>]

At 06:39 PM 10/6/99 -0500, you wrote:
>Radsafers,
>
>We are being pressured by our Regulatory Agency to provide a Protocol for 
>measuring the radioactivity of beta emitters in the existing dose calibrators.
>
>How are you meeting the regulatory requirements for calibrating beta emitters 
>in your Nuclear Medicine Department with your existing dose calibrators?  Are 
>you comfortable with it?
>
>Thank you for any replies,
>
>Robert M. Ryan, CHP
>ryanchp@aol.com
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Dear Robert:

I assume you are referring to pure beta emitters.  These are just Sr-89 and
P-32.  Basically you are using the brem spectrum.  The accuracy is not as
high as for a photon emitter, but it's good enough for medical work.  If
it's not good enough for a regulator, then the regulator needs to change his
standard.

The company sends you a standard and you work out the pot settings on your
ion chamber.

If you're using C-14, such as for urea breath tests, you cannot use an ion
chamber; the brem is too soft.  With Curie quantities you can actually use a
NaI well counter, but those quantities are never used in Nuclear Medicine.

Ciao, Carol

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