ABSTRACT

The initial medical successes early in the 20th century using radium for the treatment of cancer were followed by the use of radioiodine in the diagnosis and treatment of thyrotoxicosis and thyroid cancer. Over the past 50 years a broad range of gamma and beta-emitting radionuclides has been incorporated into radiochemicals and radiopharmaceuticals for routine use as biological tracers and as diagnostic and therapeutic agents used clinically in hospital laboratories and clinics (AAPM, 1987; Anderson and Bergmann, 1994). These tracers are increasingly being used as a means of monitoring drug release, deposition dispersion and kinetics. This chapter outlines the basic instrumentation and technology associated with the application of scintigraphy to drug formulation research.