Abstract
A radiopharmaceutical is a specific compound which has been labelled with a small amount of a radionuclide in order to allow this product to be detected externally once given parenterally to a patient. Both the substance to be labelled and the radioactive nuclide are usually used in such small amounts that no pharmacological effect ensues upon administration to the patient. Often the designations “tracer” and “trace amounts” are employed since the chemical quantities which are labelled are in the order of a millionth of a gram. External detection of the signal emitted by the radiopharmaceutical allows the tracer to be recorded either by a probe (such as for the peroperative detection of the sentinel node) or by an imaging device, such as the Anger gamma camera. The latter is then used to obtain an image of the distribution of the tracer in a specific region of the body. In the case of visualisation of the lymphatic pathways, the word “lymphoscintigraphy” is most appropriately used.
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© 1999 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Keshtgar, M.R.S., Waddington, W.A., Lakhani, S.R., Ell, P.J. (1999). Radiopharmaceuticals. In: The Sentinel Node in Surgical Oncology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60038-8_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60038-8_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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