FDG-18

Fludeoxyglucose F-18

Making Medical Images Glow

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What is FDG-18?

When is it useful?

how its made

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How does the radiation decay?

What is Half Life and Why it matters?

How does the FDG-18 leave the body?

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3D Animation

How it Produces Images

• When the Fluorine-18 is broken down, it creates oxygen and a positively charged particle called a positron.
• Each positron interacts with a negatively charged particle called an electron, causing them to move quickly in opposite directions.
• This movement creates rays which are detected by x-rays and create images like the one on the left.

How Does FDG-18 Leave?

• After the scan is finished, the patient will need to avoid being around small children or pets until the radiation has decreased to a safe level.
• Based upon the half-life and a starting dose, it takes approximately 18 hours to reduce the dose to a level of undetectable.
• Most manufacturers indicate it is cleared from most tissues at 24 hours, except for the heart which can take a little longer.

When is it useful?

• In general, FDG-18 will be attracted to healthy cells in the body that need lots of glucose, the major energy source of cells.
• This includes the brain and heart.
• However, in certain conditions such as cancer, cells will attract more glucose than is normal.

What is FDG-18

FDG-18 is a molecule that is composed of a type of glucose molecule along with a radioactive tracer, Fluorine-18, which is used in conjunction with radiological imaging to diagnose a variety of conditions.

Radiological imaging refers to scans such as Positron Emission Tomography (PET), a non-invasive imaging method that uses x-rays along with a radioactive tracer in order to obtain detailed images of the body.

HOW IS IT MADE

• There is a multistep process involved in the production of Fluorine-18 in order to act as the radioactive component of the tracer.
• Generation of the Fluorine-18 typically occurs in a charged particle accelerator called a cyclotron.
• The process begins with overwhelming lots of oxygen molecules with hydrogen atoms.
• As such, Fluorine-18 will be produced.
• Additionally, a variety of other processes take place to prepare the tracer for injection. However, these are outside of the scope of this project.

What is Half Life

• Half-Life describes the time taken for the radiation level to decrease to half of its original dose.
• If fresh-baked cookies for example have a half-life of 1 hour, after 1 hour you'd have 1/2 a cookie, after 2 hours 1/4 a cookie and so on.

• This process continues until all of the item in question is gone.
• In this case, that is when the remaining FDG-18 is 0.

Sometimes the best way to understand the process is through an in-depth animation. Watch this short video to see a 3D model of what is happening with FDG-18 in PET scans.