What is isotope testing

Now in hospitals, isotope examinations are no longer rare, and doctors can use isotope examinations to help us discover certain diseases or symptoms. Isotope examinations can more clearly show the site of the disease and the severity of the disease, which is an advancement in the development of medicine. Therefore, we must understand some relevant knowledge about isotope examinations in our lives. This can enrich our experience and lay a solid foundation for this knowledge in the future. Therefore, it is beneficial rather than harmful for us to understand some knowledge in our daily lives. So let’s take a look at what isotope testing!

1. Isotope Detection

Isotopes are atoms with the same atomic number but different mass numbers. They occupy the same position in the periodic table and have almost the same chemical properties. Such as C12, C13, C14. Among them, C14 (carbon fourteen) is a radioactive isotope.

Chinese name

Isotope detection

Foreign name

Isotope detection

isotope

The atomic numbers are the same

2. Cycle

Isotope decay cycle

Radioactive isotopes are some of the heaviest elements that exist in nature and emit three types of radiation. The isotope dating method makes use of the decay cycle of radioactive isotopes.

Disintegration is also called decay, and the half-life of a radioactive element indicates the speed of decay. The half-lives of different atoms vary greatly. In archaeology, the abundance of C14 is measured using conventional radioactive decay techniques. By comparing the C14 content with the current C standard, the age of the sample can be inferred. This is the so-called carbon-14 isotope dating method (also known as isotope detection method). In fact, ancient maps can be identified using ultra-sensitive accelerator mass spectrometry technology, which is also based on the principle of isotope detection but is much more advanced. Mass spectrometry technology has a shorter testing time and higher accuracy, and the corresponding dating error is plus or minus 50 years.

Radioactive isotopes are also called radionuclides, and their characteristic is that they are radioactive. These substances enter the human body orally or through intravenous injection and are distributed throughout the body. A detection scanner is then used to receive radioactive signals at a certain part of the human body, and a scintillation camera can be used to form an image, thereby obtaining a radioactive distribution map of a certain area of ​​tissue. Since the concentration of radioactive substances in normal tissues and various lesions is different, their radioactivity distribution is also different, which can be used to determine the nature and distribution of some lesions.

Although the human brain has abundant blood flow, not all components of the blood can penetrate into the brain tissue. There seems to be a barrier between the blood flow in the blood vessels and the brain tissue, which is medically called the blood-brain barrier. Under normal circumstances, certain radioactive substances ingested by the human body cannot reach the brain, or the concentration in the brain is extremely low, so the brain parenchyma shows radioactive blank areas. However, areas where the blood-brain barrier is damaged by disease (such as cerebral infarction) will show radioactivity concentration, which can be shown by brain imaging.