Radiopharmacology or
medicinal radiochemistry is
radiochemistry applied to
medicine and thus the
pharmacology of radiopharmaceuticals (
medicinal radiocompounds, that is,
pharmaceutical drugs that are
radioactive). Radiopharmaceuticals are used in the field of
nuclear medicine as
radioactive tracers in
medical imaging and in
therapy for many
diseases (for example,
brachytherapy). Many radiopharmaceuticals use
technetium-99m (Tc-99m) which has many useful properties as a gamma-emitting
tracer nuclide. In the book
Technetium a total of 31 different radiopharmaceuticals based on Tc-99m are listed for imaging and functional studies of the
brain,
myocardium,
thyroid,
lungs,
liver,
gallbladder,
kidneys,
skeleton,
blood and
tumors.