History of Nuclear Medicine

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History of Nuclear Medicine
Introduction
The history of Nuclear medicine has a lot of importance and made a significant improvement to today’s medicine. Nuclear medicine has made genetic therapy a success and improved the rate of surviving cancer a lot more likely than before. There is no real birthdate for nuclear medicine according to medical historians and this is due to Nuclear medicine multidisciplinary nature. However, there is a given approximate range of its birthdate, which was between 1934 and 1946. In 1934, the artificial radioactivity was discovered, and in 1946, radionuclides were produced by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for medical use. Through this article, the following would be discussed; the achievements and great discoveries that helped evolve Nuclear Medicine, the important uses for Nuclear Medicine, and the growth and expansion of Nuclear Medicine outside North America.
Achievements
The following dates are important achievement’s that helped Nuclear Medicine to improve and overcome milestones that once appeared impossible to achieve.
• In 1669, phosphorus was discovered by H. Brand. 4
• In 1896, mysterious rays from uranium were discovered by H. Becquerel. 2
• In 1934, artificially produced radioisotopes were discovered by Frédéric Joliot-Curie and Irène Joliot-Curie, which was considered the most significant milestone Nuclear Medicine has achieved to historians. 1
• In 1937, technetium-99m was discovered by C. Perrier and E. Segre. It is a radionuclide, and was first discovered as an artificial element that was used to fill space number 43 in the periodic table. 1
• In 1939, strontium-89 was evaluated to be used in treating pain in cancer. 3
• In 1938, iodine-131 and cobalt-60 isotopes were discovered by J. Livingood and G. Seaborg. 2
• In 1946, radionuclides were produced by Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
• In 1971, Nuclear Medicine was

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