what radioactive materials are used in medical radiation?
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The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's mandate to protect public health and safety and the environment includes regulation of the medical use of radioactive (byproduct) material in the fields of nuclear medicine, radiation therapy, and research.\n\nMedical use of radioactive materials falls broadly into two categories: diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Diagnostic procedures using radioactive materials, such as those used in nuclear medicine, involve the use of relatively small amounts of radioactive materials to facilitate imaging of certain organs. Two examples of nuclear medicine procedures are the use of technetium-99m in the diagnosis of bone, heart or other organs and radioactive iodine in the imaging of the thyroid gland. The radioactive materials typically are injected into the patient and allow physicians to locate and identify tumors, size anomalies, or other physiological or functional organ problems.
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The problem with radiation is that it is cumulative and deadly. Dosage depends on what type of radiation it is. \nThere are 3 types: alpha, beta, and Gamma rays.\n\n\nalpha are stopped by a thin sheet of aluminum foil. Beta are stronger again, and gamma with need several feet of lead shielding. \n\nIt is the beta and gamma radiation that will pass through the human body and do damage, genetically altering cells, and resulting in tumours and genetic (mutagenic) birth defects. \n\nThe best way to deal with radio active substances is to reduce the time exposed to them, use shielding (ie a radiation suit or keep materials in a lead case etc) and distance, that is get as far from the source as possible.\n\nThey need to be transported and handled carefully, and properly labelled, and to be treated with respect.
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The usual unit is REMs or Sieverts. Both REMs and Sieverts are based on how human bodies absorb radiation and have a fairly complex definition involving absorption of different types of radiation by specific tissue types.  Other units, used for describing radioactive materials themselves, like Curies, are based on how much radioactive material is present, or what the rate of production of different types of radiation is.  \n\nHere's a good link on Sieverts:\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sievert
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I assume they want to know about nuclear radiation.  Some basic facts:\n- 3 types are alpha, beta and gamma\n- All are found in nature, you carry it around in you, it comes from just about all natural materials to some small degree.\n- Naturally occuring radiation is little to worry about, we evolved with it and our bodies can handle it.\n- In most areas of the world, natually occuring radiation hits each square inch of your body between 12-18 times per minute!  Radiation can not be felt by the body.\n- Alpha is the biggest particle (nucleaus of a helium atom) and moves slowly.  Not enough speed to even penetrate the layer of normal dead skin on your body.  \n- Beta is an electron moving at higher speeds.  It too is motly blocked by skin, but in high dosages can start to become a problem.\n- Gamma is not a particle, but a wave like light (but much higher frequency).  X-rays and cosmic rays are the best known.  Cosmic rays are the most common type of radiation that hit our bodies per above.  It comes from high speed particles interacting with our atmosphere.  \n- The small amounts of natural radiation we encounter everyday is not a significant problem, but concentrated sources of radiation are.  These have historically included x-rays, byproducts of nuclear bombs or reactors, mishandled medical/agricultural/engineering equipment.  \n- Ingested alpha and beta emitting materials are dangerous even in tiny amounts and can cause cancer.
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They are used in nuclear imaging sorta liek xrays, they can use liek barium to get scans of the intestines and other elements can be traced threw the body to check for defaults
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Ignore the abusive idiot above. He has no idea what he is talking about.\n\n\nThere are lots of different radioactive elements. Some are dangerous but the vast majority are harmless. \n\nYour body and everybody else's is already full of radiocative elements. You are loaded with isotopes like 13Carbon., tritium, 44Calcium and so on. Every living thing that has ever existed on Earth has been losded with those radicoative elements. We've evolved with them from the beginning and as a result they are quite harmles to us in normal doses.\n\nA few unnatural radioactive isotopes are harmful in small doses, and some natural isotopes are dangerous if they are concentrated in the body. But the general answer is that radiocative elements are quite harmless.
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Powering boats like aircraft carriers and submarines.\n\nProducing radioactives for medical uses like Technesium99 which is injected into patients to do bone scans.\n\nPossibly used as a starter system for nuclear fission reactors (though this is a theory that has been around for decades and still hasn't happened) \n\nReally Big Bombs.
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MRI:\n\n\nAn MRI (or magnetic resonance imaging or nuclear magnetic resonance imaging) scan is a radiology technique which uses magnetism, radio waves, and a computer to produce images of body structures. These images can detect the difference between normal and diseased tissue.\n\nMRI makes better images of organs and soft tissue than other scanning techniques, such as CT or x-ray. Breast MRI is excellent at imaging breasts with implants. MRI is also useful for staging breast cancer, determining the most appropriate treatment, and for patient follow-up after breast cancer treatment. MRI is especially useful for imaging the brain, spine, the soft tissue of joints, and the inside of bones.\n\nXray:Chest x-ray (also known as Chest Radiography) is done for the evaluation of the lungs, heart and chest wall. IBC patients will have chest x-rays to determine their Staging and their ability to receive certain chemotherapy agents like Adriamycin which can be damaging to the heart.\nRadiography involves exposing a part of the body to a small dose of radiation to produce an image of the internal organs. When x-rays penetrate the body, they are absorbed in varying amounts by different parts of the anatomy. The ribs and spine, for example, absorb much of the radiation and appear white or light gray on the image. Lung tissue absorbs little radiation and appears dark on the image. Depending upon the type of image-recording medium, chest x-rays can be maintained as hard copy film for filing or as filmless digital images that are archived electronically.
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Yes, radioactive isotopes of certain elements like iodine at very vary low concentrations are given intravenous.these isotopes get absorbed  at malignant regions brain and appear prominently in CAT or MRI scans.These radioactive dyes are also used in diagnostic imaging scans of other organs.
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Beta\n\nBeta radiation
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Alpha rays are helium nuclei (particles). Very heavy and highly charged. They are shielded by even a piece of paper.\n\nBetas are electrons (again particles). Less massive than alpha and a little more penetrating. Multiple layers of outer skin will stop these.\n\nGammas are packets of energy (radiation not particles). They can range greatly in energy and have no charge, so they are the most penetrating. That is why they are considered a whole body radiation dose. (think x-rays)
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radiology is the study of radiation therapy\nradiation therapy is delivery of a therapeuticdose of radioactive substance
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Measuring radioactivity levels of radioactive isotopes  with a Geiger counter.  Measuring radioactivity through different materials.
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The rate of radiation is determined by the isotopes involved.  No matter what elements, no matter what method of decay, only two things can lessen the effects of radiation.  One is shielding.  This is easier with alpha particles than with gamma rays.  The other is distance.  By doubling the distance from the radiation source, the amount of radiation is reduced to one fourth.\nWith time any specimen will have fewer atoms which are radioactive.  Eventually all radioactive specimens stop radiating (but this might take tens of hours or billions of years)
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Radionucleides.  The only time you might ordinarily be exposed to them is during a medical proceedure wherein the radiation they emit is a desired aspect.  Those proceedures are either for diagnostic purposes or theraputic purposes.  \n\nBad for you?  No, the amount of radiation your body is exposed to during such an exam is quite minimal.  On the other hand, theraputic radiation is very, very carefully controlled and administered.  In the past, folks sometimes experienced quite a bit of discomfort during radiation therapy.  That's much less the case now, and we have medicines to help what discomfort there is - medicines that simply were not avaliable until recently.\n\nThat having been said, there's been a lot of fuss and bother over the possibility of someone "exploding a dirty bomb",  meaning a device that might spread radioactive particles over a wide area.  Despite Homeland Security's attempts to panic us, that is very, very, VERY unlikely.  So is a nuclear accident like Three Mile Island twenty or so years ago - and Three Mile Island, frightening as it was for people living nearby, left nobody outside the plant sick from radiation - nobody.  But a serious accident COULD result in many, many serious injuries and deaths.  The proper response is for surrounding communities to have in place a proper disaster response plan that may include mass evacuation and prophylactic medicines in stock.  Unfortunately, despite all the hype and all the promises, vitually no community has done squat to properly prepare for either a nuclear accident or a deliberate attempt an spreading nuclear-contaminated materal.  Sure as can be, the Federal government has done virtually nothing worthwhile in that respect!   The stinkers...
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http://www.burtonreport.com/InfForensic/HumanExperPlutonium.htm\n\n\nhttp://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/radiation/dir/mstreet/commeet/meet10/brief10/tab_i/br10i2j.txt
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the anodes targets are made of tungsten, copper or molybdenum.\n\nytterbium can be used as a portable x-ray source.\n\nlead is used for shielding them