Fred P. Bruno

Scintillation camera scanning of the salivary glands.

It has been known for many years that -1 iodine, bromine, rhenium, and other elements of Periodic Group VII are selectively concentrated by the thyroid gland, salivary glands, and gastric mucosa as iodide, bromide, and perrhenate (1, 2). It was not surprising that technetium 99m, a member of the Seventh Periodic Group introduced as a brain scanning agent by Harper (3), is also concentrated by these organs as pertechnetate. This last is an excellent scanning agent because the short six-hour half-life and the absence of beta emissions make possible larger administered doses with less radiation to the patients tissue than commonly used brain scanning agents. In addition, its low-energy gamma (140 keV) simplifies collimator design and increases detector efficiency. This agent has been so successful in brain scanning that only recently has attention been turned to the possibility of its use in those other organs in which it is selectively concentrated. We have recently developed a functional and morphological...

A Digital Computer Data Acquisition, Display, and Analysis System for the Gamma Camera

A digital computer data acquisition, display, and analysis system for use with a scintillation camera is described. The system makes possible quantitative analysis of a scan image now represented by a 50 × 50 matrix. The low cost of the small general-purpose computer employed in this system makes it a practical consideration for the average nuclear medicine laboratory.

An Automatic Depth-Dose Acquisition System

Three years ago, the Department of Radiology of the University of Florida, Gainesville, initiated computer programs for the IBM 709 digital computer for automatic radiation treatment planning. At that time, the data for any radiation field size were available only in the form of iso-dose curves; a data presentation not immediately useful for computers. The computer requires data in digital form at discrete points rather than in a continuous form as presented by isodose curves. To prepare radiation field data for computer usage, we at first digitized the isodose curves by laying a sheet of translucentgraph paper over the curve and finding the dose value at each grid point on the graph. This method was time-consuming, and, in addition, it was inaccurate because of the many interpolations needed. To obtain the radiation field data quickly and accurately, we have devised a system which measures dose values at discrete points and punches them on IBM cards. Scanning System In general, an ionization-chamber-type...

Solid State Electrometer Amplifier

A solid state electrometer amplifier is described, using at the input a field-effect-transistor instead of a thermionic electrometer valve. A circuit description and analysis, as well as design considerations and parameters, are also given. The amplifier offers useful applications in radiation dosimetry, with the advantages of reliability, simplified circuitry and space reduction.

Intracavitary radiation probe.

Radium has been utilised to treat carcinoma of the uterine cervix for many years. From the time radium was first used, radiotherapists have been interested in detailed information about the dosages received in the rectum and bladder while the radium was in place in the patient (Fletcher, Brown and Rutledge, 1958). In order to obtain this information, various types of radiation detection instruments have been designed for intracavitary use (Lederman, 1950; Fedoruk, Johns and Watson, 1954; Svensson and Bjarngard, 1964; Benner, Ragnhult and Gebert, 1959). In most cases the associated electronics used with these instruments has made their use awkward. A portable, battery-operated instrument, developed at our institution, is both reliable and easily handled. Information about the amount of radiation received by the bladder and rectum could be used to develop new techniques or bring about changes in treatment plans which could result in fewer complications due to irradiation of these two organs. In general, the...

A NEW DOSE CALIBRATOR FOR NUCLEAR MEDICINE

An ionization chamber dose calibrator for bulk assay of millicurie levels of radioactivity and the automatic calculation of the volume of nuclide to be administered are described. Two versions are offered, a less expensive one with analog readout and a more expensive version with digital readout. In both versions the design of chamber and circuits obviates the necessity of any calculation at all by the technician.