History and Background

Physicists to remember

Physicians to remember

 

The origin of Nuclear Medicine dates more than 100 years ago.

Nuclear medicine has a rich and multifaceted heritage. Its origins stem from many scientific discoveries, most notably the discovery of x-rays in 1895 and the discovery of "artificial radioactivity" in 1934. The first clinical use of "artificial radioactivity" was carried out in 1937 for the treatment of a patient with leukemia at the University of California at Berkeley.

A landmark event for nuclear medicine occurred in 1946 when a thyroid cancer patient's treatment with radioactive iodine caused complete disappearance of the spread of the patient's cancer. This has been considered by some as the true beginning of nuclear medicine. Wide-spread clinical use of nuclear medicine, however, did not take place until the early 1950s.

The value of radioactive iodine became apparent as its use to measure the function of the thyroid and to diagnose thyroid disease became established. Simultaneously, more and more physicians begin to use "nuclear medicine" for the treatment of patients with hyperthyroidism. The concept of nuclear medicine was a dramatic breakthrough for diagnostic medicine. Moreover, the ability to treat a disease with radio-pharmaceuticals and to record and make a "picture" of the form and structure of an organ was invaluable.

In the mid-sixties and the years that followed, the growth of nuclear medicine as a specialty discipline was phenomenal. The advances in nuclear medicine technology and instrumentation were critical to this development.

The 1970s brought the visualisation of most other organs of the body with nuclear medicine, including liver and spleen scanning, brain tumour localisation, and studies of the gastrointestinal tract.

The 1980s saw the use of radio-pharmaceuticals for such critical diagnoses as heart disease and the development of cutting-edge nuclear medicine cameras and computers.

Today, there are more than 100 different nuclear medicine procedures that uniquely provide information about virtually every major organ system within the body. Nuclear medicine has become an integral part of clinical medicine.

Physicians to remember :

William Prount (1785-1850) – trained as both chemist/physician first to recommend the use of iodine for the treatment of Goitre .

Blumgart  - American physician working in the field of cardiology who performed what was probably the first Nuclear Medicine procedure, when he measured transit time of a radio tracer for the circulation as measure of cardiac function.

George Von Hevesy (1885-1966) - involved in the first administration of radio active compounds to humans in 1937 using P-32 (as Na PO₄) to evaluate the excretory route of phosphorus.

Dawns Charles - demonstrated Sr-89 uptake in bone, especially in malignant bone tumours and this led to Strontium therapy.

John Hundale Lawrence – first to administer P-32 as a therapeutic agent for haematological malignancy (P32 remains a valuable tool for treating Myelo proliferative disorders).

Joseph Gilbert Hamilton - pioneered the use of radioactive iodine as a diagnostic and therapeutic agent for thyroid disease in humans in October 1937.

Marshall Brucer – Foundation President of the Society of Nuclear Medicine.

Henry Wagner jr – made many contributions towards nuclear medicine and performed first Lung scan on himself.

Physicists to remember:

Roentgen – discovered X-rays and obtained photographs, including the famous picture of the bones of his wife’s hand, which was published through the world, giving rise to radiology.

Marie Curie and Pierre Curie – Discovery of Radio activity!!!

William Duane – Professor of physics who built the first extraction plant for radon, a short-lived daughter product of radium. The device, the radon ‘cow’, provided a ready renewable supply of radioactivity leading to more affordable and hence wider application of radionuclide therapy.

The theory of Relativity (E = mc²) concepts developed by Einstein (1819-1955) aided the understanding of radioactivity and physics.

The process of nuclear fission by Otto Hahn (1879-1969) become an important phenomenon in the field of nuclear physics.

Neil Bohr (1885-1962) – developed the concept of atomic structure leading to the development of Quantum Physics, which made possible understanding of the various concepts in nuclear physics.

Francis William Aston  (1877-1945) - developed the mass spectrometer which was used to identify isotopes by small differences in their mass.

Structure of atom and nature of radioactivity was better understood by quantum theory developed by Maxwell Planck.

Arthur Holly Compton (1892-1962) - demonstrated the "Hump" on the energy spectrum of Gamma – emitting radionuclides.

Hans Geiger – German Physicist developed geiger-muller tube used for detection of radioactivity.

Ernest O.Lawrence  (1901 – 1958) - built the first cyclotron, which still remains an important instrument for the production of a range of radionuclides used in nuclear medicine (includes positron emitting radio nuclides and single photon emitting agents such Tl – 201, Ga – 67 and I –123).

Enrico Fermi – most important individual in the development of nuclear physics. Discovered artificial radioactivity created by bombardment of non- radioactive element with particulate radiation.

Evaluation of the concepts of pair production by Joliot Frederic and Irene Curie (daughter of Marie Curie) led to the discovery of artificial radioactivity and the concepts of annihilation which was important to understand the concept of annihilation reaction and positron decay.

Benedict Casser - developed the first rectilinear scanner in the early 1950's.

Lise Meitner (1878-1968) – together with Otto Hahn played an important role in development of nuclear reactor and the atomic bomb. He also noted the presence of electron emission following gamma decay.

Paul Aebersold (1910-1967) University of California – produced Co-60 for a tele-therapy radiotherapy machine.

Basic Scintillation detector was developed by Hartmut – Kallman.

Glen Seaborg   had produced I 131 (half life – 8 days) replacing less practical I-128 isotopes.