Development of a new portable instrument for in-situ activity measurement of Radionuclides in Nuclear Medicine

The main part of this thesis is the hardware of the new in-situ 4πβ(LS) − γ coincidence detection system is developed at ENEA in collaboration with Catania University and INFN-Catania section, for activity measurement of short half-lived radionuclides used in nuclear medicine. Whereas, the data analysis software of the ENEA portable 4πβ(LS) − γ coincidence detection system is updated and modified in Electronic Nuclear Equipment Construction (CAEN) in Italy. The 4πβ − γ coincidence counting technique is the most powerful technique for the absolute activity measurements of β − γ or EC − γ emitting radionuclides. Short half-lived radionuclides such as 11C which has half-life about 20 min, it needs to be standardized in-situ. It is difficult to send the 11C source to nuclear metrology institute for example it is laborious to standardize 11C radiopharmaceutical solution by sending this solution form Cannizzaro hospital in Catania to ENEA-INMRI in Rome. For that reason, it is important to have a portable instrument to standardize short half-live radionuclide inside radiopharmaceuticals centers. Furthermore, this portable detection system can be used to calibrate other radioactive measurement instruments such as activimeter in the nuclear medicine laboratory. The new ENEA portable 4πβ(LS) − γ detection system can be used in all other regions in Italy or in other countries to measure and standardize short half-lived radionuclides. Another important point is that we took this new detection system to the hospital. For the first time the 4πβ(LS) − γ coincidence technique is used as in-situ detection system in the Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesu (OPBG) hospital in Rome near ENEA, to measure the activity of an important therapeutic radiopharmaceutical radionuclides (131 I), which is used to diagnose and treat cancers of the thyroid gland.