Credit Hours:3-0-3
Corequisites:NRE 6756
Catalog Description:Radioisotope production, radiopharmacy, planar gamma cameras, SPECT systems, PET systems, medical internal radiation dose (MIRD) method, nuclear medicine facilities and regulations
Textbooks:Simon R. Cherry, Michael Phelps, James A. Sorenson, and R. W. Blowey, Physics in Nuclear Medicine, 3rd edition, Elsevier Science, 2003
Instructors:Lei Zhu
Instruction:32 lectures (48 hours)
Topics:

I. Production of Radionuclides
(a) Reactors
(b) Accelerators

II. Radiopharmacy
(a) Generator systems
(b) Preparation of radiopharmaceuticals
(c) Radionuclides for specific clinical applications

III. Internal Radiation Dosimetry
(a) Modeling of tracer kinetics
(b) Medical internal radiation dose (MIRD) methodology
(c) Dose assessment for therapeutic use of radionuclides
(d) Dose assessment for diagnostic use of radionuclides

IV. The Gamma Camera Systems
(a) Camera characteristics
(b) Collimators
(c) Scintillating crystals
(d) Photomultiplier tube array
(e) SPECT systems
(f) PET systems

V. Tomographic Image Formation
(a) Discrete-time signals
(b) Discrete-time Fourier transform
(c) Continuous-time signals and systems
(d) Continuous-time Fourier transform
(e) Image reconstruction
- Filtered backprojection
- Iterative reconstruction
- SPECT
- PET

VI. Radiation Protection in Nuclear Medicine
(a) ALARA principle
(b) Area and personnel shielding

VII. Quality Control and Regulation in Nuclear Medicine