How is technetium-99m used in medical diagnosis?

The radioisotope most widely used in medicine is Tc-99, employed in some 80% of all nuclear medicine procedures. It is an isotope of the artificially-produced element technetium and it has almost ideal characteristics for a nuclear medicine scan, such as with SPECT. These are:. read more

Uses of Technetium-99m Technetium-99m (Tc-99m) is used in a wide range of medical applications, such as distinguishing brain tumours. Over 10,000 hospitals worldwide use radioisotopes in medicine, and about 90% of the procedures are for diagnosis. read more

Technetium-99m is a metastable nuclear isomer of technetium-99 (itself an isotope of technetium), symbolized as 99m Tc, that is used in tens of millions of medical diagnostic procedures annually, making it the most commonly used medical radioisotope. read more

Technetium-99m is used in over 20 million diagnostic nuclear medical procedures every year, half of which are bone scans, and the other half are roughly divided between kidney, heart and lung scans. Approximately 85% of diagnostic imaging procedures in nuclear medicine use this isotope. read more