Abstract
A radiopharmaceutical is a radioactive compound used for the diagnosis and therapeutic treatment of human diseases. In nuclear medicine nearly 95 % of the radiopharmaceuticals are used for diagnostic purposes, while the rest are used for therapeutic treatment. Radiopharmaceuticals usually have no pharmacologic effect, because in most cases they are used in tracer quantities. In these cases, they do not show any dose—response relationship and thus differ from conventional drugs. Because they are administered to humans, they should be sterile and pyrogen free, and they should undergo all quality control measures required of a conventional drug. A radiopharmaceutical may be a radioactive element such as 133Xe or 85Kr, or a labeled compound such as 131I-iodinated proteins and 99mTc-labeled compounds.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Suggested Reading
Burns HD (1978) Design of radiopharmaceuticals. In : Heindel ND, Burns HD, Honda T, Brady LW (eds) The chemistry of radiopharmaceuticals. Masson, New York, p 35
Burns HD, Worley P, Wagner HN Jr, Marzilli L, Risch VR (1978) Design of technetium radiopharmaceuticals. In : Heindel ND, Burns HD, Honda T, Brady LW (eds) The chemistry of radiopharmaceuticals. Masson, New York, p 269
Counsell RE, Ice RD (1975) The design of organ-imaging radiopharmaceuticals. In: Ariens EJ (ed) Drug design, Vol 6. Academic Press, New York, p 172
Heindel ND (1978) Principles of target tissue localization of radiopharmaceuticals. In: Heindel ND, Burns HD, Honda T, Brady LW (eds) The chemistry of radiopharmaceuticals. Masson, New York, p 11
McAfee JG (1975) Radioactive diagnostic agents : Current problems and limitations. In: Subramanian G, Rhodes BA, Cooper JF, Sodd VJ (eds) Radiopharmaceuticals. Society of Nuclear Medicine, New York, p 3
McAfee JG, Subramanian G (1975) Radioactive agents for imaging. In : Freeman LM, Johnson PJ (eds) Clinical scintillation imaging. Grune & Stratton, New York, p 13
Risch VR, Markoe AM, Honda T (1978) The pharmacology and preclinical evaluation of radiopharmaceuticals. In: Heindel ND, Burns HD, Honda T, Brady LW (eds) The chemistry of radiopharmaceuticals. Masson, New York, p 123
Wagner HN Jr, Stern HS, Rhodes BA, et al (1973) Design and development of new radiopharmaceuticals. In: Medical Radioisotope Scintigraphy, Vol 2. IAEA, Vienna, p 3
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1979 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Saha, G.B. (1979). Radiopharmaceuticals. In: Fundamentals of Nuclear Pharmacy. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-4021-9_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-4021-9_5
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-4023-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-4021-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive