Nuclear medical imaging using β+γ coincidences from 44Sc radio-nuclide with liquid xenon as detection medium

Cyclotron production of high purity 44m,44 Sc with deuterons from 44 CaCO 3 targets

“…44 Sc is developed for a new nuclear medical imaging technique using the ability of the 44 Sc to emit in 99.9% of the cases a photon with energy of 1.15 MeV and a characteristic emission time of few picoseconds. When calculating radiation doses, the specific emission characteristics of 44 Sc make it a unique candidate promising for 3γ-coincidence imaging with potentially improved local resolution, from which the very first results obtained on a small-dimension prototype let foresee a very promising perspective [16].…”

Ionization and scintillation response of high-pressure xenon gas to alpha particles

“…In addition, for xenon in the gas phase, the ionization fluctuations are characterized by a small intrinsic Fano factor [1], permitting accurate calorimetry using the ionization signal alone. For these reasons, xenon-based detectors are used for a variety of applications in fundamental and applied physics, including searches for WIMP dark matter direct detection [2 -5] double beta [6] and lepton-flavor-violating [7] decays, as well as X-ray astronomy [8], gamma-ray astronomy [9], and medical imaging [10,11]. The scintillation (often called S1) and ionization (S2) signals measured by xenon-based detectors depend on the production rate of excited atoms Xe * and electron-ion pairs e − -Xe + produced by ionizing radiation, as well as on the electron-ion recombination strength.…”

Comparison of receptor affinity of natSc-DOTA-TATE versus natGa-DOTA-TATE

“…44 Sc is a positron emitter radionuclide [Eb+ max = 1475.4 keV, Er = 1157.0 keV (99.9%)] with a half life of 3.97 hours, which can be utilized for diagnostics with 47 Sc as a matched pair for radiotherapy. Additionally, Grignon et al [4] reported that 44 Sc is an interesting radionuclide for nuclear medicine imaging using b + -g coincidences. The use of 44 Sc with a half-life more than 3 times longer than that of 68 Ga (T ½ = 67.71 min) makes it an useful alternative for diagnostic purposes but also for dosimetry and 47 Sc as radiotherapeutic agents [5].…”