G. Stöcklin - Böcker

Radiochemical methodology constitutes the most important base for the successful functioning of a PET group in the routine production and development of radiopharmaceuticals. Of the several hundred products which have been labelled with positron emitters during the past two decades, about 35 are presently considered to be of major interest. This field has advanced over the past fifteen years to reach a level where guidelines can now be suggested. Chapters of this book deal with each of the main methodological aspects of the chemistry needed to develop an effective radiopharmaceutical, namely radionuclide production, automation and metabolite analysis. A further chapter on QA/QC is written by a broadly-based expert group and is designed to provide a guideline and a base for future monographs and regulations on major PET radiopharmaceutials of today.This book should help the increasing number of scientists who are now entering the field of PET to appreciate the methodological aspects that are normally addressed by chemists in relation to PET radiopharmaceuticals; it provides many practical guidelines and should promote early success in their own endeavours, since these will often necessarily begin by establishing chemical methodology of the kind discussed here.

From Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen's search for new kinds of radiation resulted the discovery of the natural radioactivity of uranium by Antoine Henry Becquerel in 1896. This event opened a new era of science that can be considered as the beginning of nuclear sciences. The findings of Pierre and Marie Curie of radium and polonium as useful radiation source subsequently opened the way to the first applications of radiation in medicine. Over the decades and still today radiation has found broad applications in many fields of science and technology. Not only chemistry, physics, biochemistry and medicine are using relevant applications of radioactivity. Biochemistry, agriculture, cosmo- and geochemistry, archaeology, geology also are fields where radiochemistry still is gaining importance. This book gives a survey about the history and modern aspects of radioactivity, new synthetic elements, and applications of radioactivity.

Die nuklearmedizinische Funktionsdiagnostik wird durch den Einsatz von zyklotron- produzierten Radionukliden in der Zukunft wesentlich beeinfluBt und erweitert. Gerade zu dem Zeitpunkt, zu dem dieser Band erscheint, sind sowohl aus technischer, als auch aus medizinischer Sicht bedeutende Entwicklungen im Gange. Die Produktion der positronen-strahlenden Radionuklide, die Synthesen von Radiopharmaka, sowie ihre Quali- Hitskontrolle sind dabei ein Faktor. Andererseits muB durch eine aufwendige Gerateentwick- lung zur Messung und Darstellung des Radiopharmaka-Stoffwechsels die Moglichkeit ge- schaffen werden, daB nuklearmedizinische Zentren ihre bisherigen groBen Erfahrungen in die Funktionsanalyse einbringen konnen. Das wesentliche fUr die Diagnostik ist, die Funktion einzelner Organabschnitte bildhaft darzustellen, dies dreidimensional und quantitativ. Die Entwicklungs- und Erprobungsphase fUr die Anwendung der Emissionstomographie ist noch nicht beendet. Dieser Band beinhaltet dies und gibt einen Einblick in die gesamte Problematik. H.HUNDESHAGEN Hannover Preface Functional diagnosis employing nuclear medicine will in the future be influenced and extended through the use of radionuclides produced in a cyclotron. Just as this book is being published, developments are taking place which are significant from both technical and clinical points of view. Examples are the production of radio nuclides emitting positrons, the synthesis of radiopharmaceuticals, and the supervision of the quality of the latter. On the other hand, it is necessary for equipment to be developed in order to measure and depict the metabolism of radiopharmaceuticals, in order to let the centers for nuclear medicine contribute their great experience to the analysis of function.