Technetium 99m
Technetium-99m
Medical Uses
Technetium-99m is used for a multitude of things. Medical, practical and even in physics and chemistry. As far as I have read it isnt really going anywhere as of now. It is the most used and effective medical isotope as of now.
99Mo - Technetium 99m parent
It is shipped by pharmaceutical companies as technetium-99m generators worldwide or directly distributed to the local market. The generators, known as a moly cows, are devices made to provide radiation shielding for transport and to minimize the extraction work done at the medical facility. They need to be replaced weekly because the parents half life 99Mo has a half like of 66 hours.
Practical Uses of Technetium 99m
Alternate Uses
There are many uses for technetium 99m a lot of those uses are for medicine. Such as the detection of cancer, heart disease and thyroid disease, along with the study of brain and kidney function and the imaging of stress fractures.
Disadvantages
People have started switching from Thallium 201 to Technetium 99m because Thallium has lower resolution. More radiation doses which leads to 100s of other cancers.
Stress cardiography is a less sensitive test which means more false tests. Also people with heart attacks it is useless.
Stress scanning with PET and MRI, not very many doctors know how to use this.
A main disadvantage is high costs and if you make a lot there is a ton of radioactive waste involved. At the moment not alot of things compare to Technetium-99m because of the easiness to obtain it. It is currently the best thing to use at the moment.