•IDENTIFY DATA SOURCES; AND GATHER, PROCESS, AND
ANALYSE INFORMATION TO DESCRIBE THE USE OF:
- A NAMED ISOTOPE IN MEDICINE
- A NAMED ISOTOPE IN AGRICULTURE
- A NAMED ISOTOPE IN ENGINEERING
by Jessica Edejer, Kwabena Nsiah, and Cherry Tang
Medicine
In the medical sector, isotopes are a technological advance has
brought improvement in the efficiency of treatment and continuously
improving progressively.
 Like 20 years ago, Hospitals would only have a limited amount of
isotope technology which would be relatively slow at getting results
than todays. CT, and MRI in the past it would have been a quite a
new technology hence expensive and not many hospitals would have
had it at that time. But as time progressed to today isotope
technology has improved so far with its speed and efficiency to help
identify and provide a basis to a treatment.
Medical isotopes can be used in:
 Tracing/scanning
 Radiation Treatment
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Medicine
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Tracing /scanning:
Very popular and has a wide variety due to a
specialisation in different organs within the body hence
providing an specific analyse of the problem which
could help identify problem hence able to be solved
earlier instead of a broad analyse of the problem.
Machines such as X-rays, MRI (Magnetic Resonance
Imaging), CT (X-ray computer assisted Tomography),
Ultrasound or more specific ones such as Technetium99m which is used to detect abnormalities in the bone
and lungs.
Medicine
Technetium-99m
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Used to detect abnormalities in the bone and lungs
For this specific scan they first inject he patient with a small amount of radiation material
(700–1,100 MBq (19–30 mCi) of 99mTc-medronic acid) then scanned with a gamma camera.
Medronic acid is a phosphate derivative which can exchange places with bone phosphate in
regions of active bone growth, so anchoring the radioisotope to that specific region.
The technique therefore is sensitive to fractures and bone reaction to bone tumours, including
metastases.
This commonly called the bone scan but the technetium
has many other uses.
Medicine
Radiation Treatment
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Cancer is a disease that poses one of the greatest medical and research
challenges.
Advances such as the Co-60 which is used to emit gamma rays which are
used to kill cancerous cells.
To this day the continuous look for improvement and treatment for cancer is
a struggle however with radiation treatment it give us the small hope and
with the continuous improvements and advances the future seems positive
and maybe even able to defeat cancer.
But in the meantime Chemotherapy is just a small aid.
Agriculture
Phosphorus-32
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often used as a tracer in plants to track the movement of nutrients,
especially useful when tracking the uptake of fertilisers. P-32 is a beta
emitter with a half-life of 14.3 days and can be incorporated chemically as
part of fertilisers and weed-killers. Radiation detectors can monitor the
amount of chemical inside the plant, as opposed to that administered dose.
Phosphorus is important to plant growth and the half-life of 14.3 days is on
a good time scale to study chemical uptake. It allows farmers and
agriculturalists to optimise the production and the use of fertilisers and
weedicide, at the same time also helping to save money.
Engineering
Iridium-192
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Non-destructive method of testing the integrity of metal objects
E.g. automotive, aviation, construction
Emits gamma rays which have short wavelengths allowing more
penetration then other radiation such as x-rays
The isotope is shielded from the outside whilst allowing gamma rays
to travel in one direction
Gamma rays pass through the metal object and are detected by a
photographic film
Higher levels of radiation will be detected if there are cracks or
breaks in the object, indicating structural damage