In-Vivo Assessment of Whole-Body Radioisotope Burdens at the Los Alamos National Laboratory

摘要

The Los Alamos National Laboratory program for in-vivo measurements includes the capability for the whole-body assessment of body burdens for x-ray or gamma-ray emitting radioisotopes. This capability is an important part of the health and safety program at Los Alamos where a wide variety of radioisotopes are utilized. This report addresses the whole body portion of our in-vivo measurement capabilities. Whole-body measurements at Los Alamos make use of a hyperpure germanium (HpGe) detector and a lithium-drifted germanium (Ge(Li)) detector for identification and quantification of radioisotopes. Analysis results are interpreted in terms of two basic statistical measures of detection limits. One measure is called the minimum significant measured activity (MSMA), which is interpreted as meaning that there is some activity in the body. The second measure is called the minimum detectable true activity (MDTA), which is defined as the smallest amount of activity required to be in the body in order that a measurement of an individual can be expected to imply correctly the presence of activity with a predetermined degree of confidence. 7 references, 8 figures. (ERA citation 09:001320)