Nuclear Stress test

[rigney]

Had a nuclear stress test done Monday. Never had one before and was a bit leary. Always running on that crazy treadmill. Got some bum knees now and they retired me from the mill. Anyway, I was injected with a radio isotope. Something called, Tc99m Sestamlib. The lady tech called it Technisium, or something like that. Asked her how long I was going to be radioactive and she told me about six hours. I got to looking at a tag she said I should carry with me for the next week. Shit, I'm in bed that night looking to see if I was glowing in the dark. No! I didn't glow, but I was uncomfortable, feeling like a damn cyborg or something. Went on the internet trying get some info on the half-life of the stuff and how it was irradiated. Nothing! If it isn't top secret, anyone out there having a clue, I would be interested? They did tell me it was gamma radiation.

Edited July 22, 2010 by rigney

[John Cuthber]

This is probably a good place to start.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technetium

[insane_alien]

Technetium-99 is made from the beta decay of Molybdenum-99.

 

the m on the end indicates that the nucleus is metastable and will release a gamma photon and decay from Tc-99m to Tc-99 (which then beta decays to Ru-99 but with a long half life).

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technetium-99m this'll tell you all you need to know.

 

its the half life thats 6 hours. so after 6hours, the radiation dose from the technicium will be half. after 12 hours it'll be a quarter and so on.

 

after about 32 half lifes (192h) there will only be a tiny chance that there is even a single atom of Tc-99m left.

 

but long before that your own natural radioactivity would swamp the radioactivity caused by the Tc-99m.

[Moontanman]

I've had it done too and it does give you an odd feeling to know you are being injected with radioactive material but then you think about the fact you are already radioactive as is everything around you and it still feels odd, lol.....

[insane_alien]

that symptom is purely psychosomatic.

 

if it was radioactive enough to stimulate your nerve cells directly (which i imagine would give an odd sensation) then you wouldn't have very long to live.

 

as both you and rigney have survived long enough to at least post about it, i think we can assume that it wasn't THAT strong.

[rigney]

I appreciate both your inputs since I was more curious than concerned. The lab tech gal had this stuff in a syringe, pushed it in my arm; gave me a few minutes to think it over and directed me to take a half hour, go to Micky Ds, have a hamburger and a coffee. My only question now is: how do they make that liquid in the syringe radioactive?

[Moontanman]

that symptom is purely psychosomatic.

 

if it was radioactive enough to stimulate your nerve cells directly (which i imagine would give an odd sensation) then you wouldn't have very long to live.

 

as both you and rigney have survived long enough to at least post about it, i think we can assume that it wasn't THAT strong.

 

 

I don't know IA, my left leg is 1.5 inches shorter than the right and I can't play the piano

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technetium-99m

 

Due to its short half life, technetium-99m for nuclear medicine purposes is usually extracted from technetium-99m generators which contain molybdenum-99 (Mo-99, half life 2.75 days), which is the usual parent nuclide for this isotope. The majority of Mo-99 produced for Tc-99m medical use comes from fission of HEU (highly enriched uranium) from only five reactors around the world: NRU, Canada; BR2, Belgium; SAFARI-1, South Africa; HFR (Petten), the Netherlands; and the OSIRIS reactor in Saclay, France.[1] Production from LEU is possible, and is produced at the new OPAL reactor, Australia, as well as other sites. Activation of Mo-98 is another, currently smaller, route of production.[2]

 

http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/history/tc-99m.asp

[CharonY]

There are no systems in cells that directly react to radioactivity and transduce it to a sensation.

Edited July 23, 2010 by CharonY

[Moontanman]

There are no systems in cells that directly react to radioactivity and transduce it to a sensation.

 

 

The radiation given off is photons and the body does indeed react to photons, UV comes to mind as in a tan or sunburn.... but in this case I am sure it was all in my mind....

[CharonY]

Actually technetium emits beta particles (electrons).

[Moontanman]

Actually technetium emits beta particles (electrons).

 

Actually techetium-99m gives off gamma rays...

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technetium-99m

 

Techetium-99m is used as a radioactive tracer that medical equipment can detect in the body. It is well suited to the role because it emits readily detectable 140 keV gamma rays (these are about the same wavelength emitted by conventional X-ray diagnostic equipment), and its half-life for gamma emission is 6.0058 hours (meaning that 93.7% of it decays to 99Tc in 24 hours). The "short" half life of the isotope (in terms of human-activity and metabolism) allows for scanning procedures which collect data rapidly, but keep total patient radiation exposure low.

 

You are thinking of this reaction

 

 

Technetium-99m decays to technetium-99 (Tc-99, the ground state of the same isotope) by rearrangement of nucleons in its nucleus. Technetium-99 then decays to stable ruthenium-99 with a half life of 211,000 years. It emits soft beta particles (electrons) in this process, but no gamma rays (photons). All of these characteristics ensure that the technetium-99 produced from technetium-99m produces very little extra radiation burden on the body.

[CharonY]

Shoot, I must have been confusing it with something else. Especially considering that betas are more harmful. I thus retract my above statement.

Edited July 23, 2010 by CharonY

[insane_alien]

Technicium-99 DOES give off beta particles. but the half life is longer than that of the C-14 in your body which also decays be beta emission. So really, if you have nothing to worry about from C-14, a little bit of Tc-99 that gets flushed out quickly anyway isn't going to change much.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

I appreciate both your inputs since I was more curious than concerned. The lab tech gal had this stuff in a syringe, pushed it in my arm; gave me a few minutes to think it over and directed me to take a half hour, go to Micky Ds, have a hamburger and a coffee. My only question now is: how do they make that liquid in the syringe radioactive?

 

From what I've gathered, it looks like they use a special sort of nuclear reactor to make radioactive molybdenum out of uranium, and the technetium comes from molybdenum as it decays radioactively. Congratulations! You're nuclear-powered now!

[rigney]

From what I've gathered, it looks like they use a special sort of nuclear reactor to make radioactive molybdenum out of uranium, and the technetium comes from molybdenum as it decays radioactively. Congratulations! You're nuclear-powered now!

 

Heck, I never thought of it like that. But you know somethin', I have felt better the past few days???