Nuclear Medicine is the field that combines principles of chemistry, physics biology and medicine to develop diagnostic and therapeutic techniques with the use of a radioactive substance. Several pioneers have contributed to the field:
Marie Currie (1861-1934) discovered the radioactive elements plutonium and radium. Her work led to the use of radioactivity in medicine.
George de Hevesy (1885-1966) he suggested and developed the tracer principle, using radioactive isotopes to study chemical processes in living organisms. He won the Nobel Price in Chemistry in 1943 for his work on radioactive tracers.
Earnst Lawrence ( 1901-1958) he invented the cyclotron, a particle accelerator which was used to produce radioactive tracers in nuclear medicine
Benedict Cassen (1902-1972) he developed the rectilinear scanner in 1950s, the first imaging device for nuclear medicine that preceded the gamma camera.
Hal Anger (1920-2005) he invented the gamma camera (also known as Anger camera) in 1957. The Anger camera is the key imaging device used in nuclear medicine today to detect radiation emitted by radioactive tracers in the body.
Michael Phelps, Edward Hoffman and Michael Ter-Pogossian are credited with the development of the modern PET scanner. Michael Phelps in particular is credited for his work in creating the first practical PET scanner in the mid-1970s. The collective efforts of these researchers led to the establishment of PET as a powerful medical imaging technique.
The above mentioned pioneers, among others have contributed in the establishment and advancement of nuclear medicine, making it an important field in modern diagnostics and treatment.
This post is dedicated to John Olsen who was the Chief of Nuclear Medicine during my tenure as Department Chairman at Ohio State University and Lyda Gogou the Dean of Health Sciences at West Attica University who was among the PET pioneers in Greece.
No comments:
Post a Comment