Handbook of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging for Physicists

Instrumentation and Imaging Procedures, Volume I

Michael Ljungberg, Michael Ljungberg

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9780429952241
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Radiology, Radiotherapy & Nuclear Medicine

This state-of-the-art handbook, the first in a series that provides medical physicists with a comprehensive overview into the field of nuclear medicine, is dedicated to instrumentation and imaging procedures in nuclear medicine. It provides a thorough treatment on the cutting-edge technologies being used within the field, in addition to touching upon the history of their use, their development, and looking ahead to future prospects.

This text will be an invaluable resource for libraries, institutions, and clinical and academic medical physicists searching for a complete account of what defines nuclear medicine.

• 
  
  

• The most comprehensive reference available providing a state-of-the-art overview of the field of nuclear medicine

• 
  
  

• Edited by a leader in the field, with contributions from a team of experienced medical physicists

• 
  
  

• Includes the latest practical research in the field, in addition to explaining fundamental theory and the field's history

1 The History of Nuclear Medicine

Bo-Anders Jönsson

DOI: 10.1201/9780429489556-1

CONTENTS

1. 1.11890–1930: The Random Discoveries and Systematic Research
2. 1.21930–1950: Discovery, Production, and Development of Radionuclides
3. 1.31950–1970: First Imaging Apparatus and Radiopharmaceuticals
4. 1.41970–1990: Tomographic Techniques, Radioimmunology, and Dosimetry
5. 1.51990–2010: Improved Imaging by Multi-Modality Systems and Novel Molecular Imaging
6. References

This chapter provides a historic overview, primarily in chronological order, of those milestones and pioneer’s research which have been relevant and important for the development of nuclear medicine and today’s status. The content is not comprehensive, and a full review is beyond the purpose of this chapter. More detailed reviews are available elsewhere [1–9] as well as articles referred to therein.

1.1 1890–1930: THE RANDOM DISCOVERIES AND SYSTEMATIC RESEARCH

Although the discovery of X-rays on 8 November 1895 by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (1845–1923) is not directly associated with nuclear medicine, it is truly the starting point for using radiation in medicine. Both diagnostic and therapeutic use in medicine of the unknown radiation were applied shortly after the discovery. The first public radiographic exposure was demonstrated by Röntgen at a meeting of the Würzburg Physical Medical Society on January 23, 1896 [10, 11].

A few months later, another unknown type of radiation was discovered. On 26 March 1896, Antoine Henri Becquerel (1852–1908] accidentally discovered an unknown phenomenon when examining fluorescence from uranium salts. With the encouragement of his friend, Henri Poincaré, Becquerel attempted to determine if the rays were of the same nature as Röntgen’s X-rays; however, he observed that the emitted radiation from the uranium penetrated black paper and blackened a photographic plate without having to be exposed to light in advance [1, 2]. This unknown radiation was first termed as “Becquerel rays”, but its origin was established later by Paul Villard (1860–1934) in 1900 while he was studying radium salts. Villard’s radiation was named gamma rays in 1903 by Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937).

Marie Sklodowska Curie (1867–1934) and her husband Pierre Curie (1859–1906) discovered the same type of penetrating radiation from uranium and named the phenomenon radioactivity in 1897. Furthermore, the Curie couple discovered the elements polonium (Z=84) and radium (Z=88), where ²²⁶Ra for many years became a frequently used ‘panacea’ for various ailments, both in vivo and in vitro. Almost directly after these incredible discoveries, radiation from different constructed X-ray tubes and the gamma radiation from ²²⁶Ra were used for various medical applications as well as for enjoyment for some decades. In medicine, radium sources were used for brachytherapy or teletherapy for almost the entire twentieth century. Röntgen was awarded the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901, while Becquerel and the Curie couple were the Nobel Laureates in Physics in 1903 (Figure 1.1). Other Nobel Laureates with special relevance to nuclear medicine are listed in Table 1.1.

Figure 1.1Swedish stamps issued by the Swedish Post Office 1961 and 1963 in honour of the Nobel laureates 60 years earlier, Röntgen (left) and Becquerel and Curie couple (right). Swedish Post Office.

Table 1.1
Nobel Laureates with Relevance to Nuclear Medicine. “For the greatest benefit to humankind”: Alfred Nobel (1833–1896)

Year		Laureate		Motivation^a
1901		Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen		“in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by the discovery of the remarkable rays subsequently named after him”
1903		Antoine Henri Becquerel		“in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity”
1903		Pierre Curie and Marie Curie, neé Sklodowska		“in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel”
1906		Joseph John Thomson		“in recognition of the great merits of his theoretical and experimental investigations on the conduction of electricity by gases”
1908		Ernest Rutherford		“for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances”
1911		Marie Curie, neé Sklodowska		“in recognition of her services to the advancement of chemistry by the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element”
1921		Albert Einstein		“for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect”
1921		Frederick Soddy		“for his contributions to our knowledge of the chemistry of radioactive substances, and his investigations into the origin and nature of isotopes”
1927		Arthur Holly Compton		“for his discovery of the effect named after him”
1933		Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac		“for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory”
1935		James Chadwick		“for the discovery of the neutron”
1935		Frederic Joliot and Irene Joliot-Curie		“in recognition of their synthesis of new radioactive elements”
1936		Carl David Anderson		“for his discovery of the positron”
1937		Clinton Joseph Davisson and George Paget Thomson		“for their experimental discovery of the diffraction of electrons by crystals”
1938		Enrico Fermi		“for his demonstrations of the existence of new radioactive elements produced by neutron irradiation, and for his related discovery of nuclear reactions brought about by slow neutrons”
1939		Ernest Orlando Lawrence		“for the invention and development of the cyclotron and for results obtained with it, especially with regard to artificial radioactive elements”
1943		George de Hevesy		“for his work on the use of isotopes as tracers in the study of chemical processes”
1944		Otto Hahn		“for his discovery of the fission of heavy nuclei”
1948		Patrick Blackett		“for his development of the Wilson cloud chamber method, and his discoveries therewith in the fields of nuclear physics and cosmic radiation”.
1951		Sir John Douglas Cockcroft and Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton		“for their pioneer work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles”
1951		Edwin Mattison, McMillan and Glenn Theodore Seaborg		“for their discoveries in the chemistry of the transuranium elements”
1977		Rosalyn...