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inaugural lecture - professor mike peters

Tracking normal and abnormal human physiology with radionuclides
30 March 2006

‘The images we produce are functional, quantitative and in general non-invasive’, explained Professor Mike Peters as he began his inaugural lecture on 30 March.

Radioactive compounds, tagged with technetium, indium or iodine to emit gamma rays, can be injected, ingested, inserted into the skin or inhaled by the patient. They are then tracked using various types of imaging equipment. Scintillation monitors work like light meters, giving a count rate for the radionuclides; while gamma cameras and PET-CT scans produce images.

Professor Peters outlined how these techniques had been employed to detect early signs of bone cancer, stress fractures and pulmonary embolisms. He showed the audience the first published white cell scan, demonstrating how the movements of the neutrophils highlighted abscesses in the body.

Listing the benefits and problems of applying radionuclide methods to humans, he pointed out that the test posed no more risks than simply living for two and a half days as a man at the age of 60 or travelling 9000 miles
by car.

He recalled how the use of Addenbrooke’s whole body counter (sensitive enough to detect the radiopotassium in a bunch of bananas) was first used to measure the amount of indium tagged neutrophils left in the body following intravenous injection. As an alternative to collecting faeces for four days and checking how many neutrophils had been lost, which caused the laboratory to rapidly empty of researchers on disposal days, this development was particularly welcome.

Professor Peters then looked at possible causes of breast cancer-related lymphoedema and his planned studies on a disorder that affects one in 40 women. As Professor Jon Cohen summarised, the lecture showed to an audience of nuclear medicine specialists and lay people just how interesting the area can be.