King Faisal Specialist Research Center Develops A Device for The Production of Pharmaceutical Radioactive Isotopes
General
21
February
21
February
A new device for the diagnosis of lung diseases in nuclear medicine departments
His Excellency Chief Executive Officer of King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Dr. Qasim Al Qasabi inaugurated a radioactive device that has been designed and developed at the Research Center of the hospital. This device has the ability to make nuclear reactions in order to match the production of irradiated (Krypton 81m) used in nuclear medicine departments for the diagnosis of lung diseases.
A Saudi research team has developed a new radiation device after several studies and simulations using sophisticated computer programs. The design and building of the device was carried out at the Cyclotron Department Laboratories (Nuclear Accelerator) and radioactive pharmaceuticals at King Faisal Specialist Hospital Research Centre.
Dr. Faisal bin Mohammed Al Romian, Head of the Cyclotron Department at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in Riyadh and the chief developer of Krypton explained that the function of the device is in the production of Krypton which is one of the isotopes of short half-lives where the Krypton device is integrated with the Hospital’s Nuclear Accelerator (C30) in order to allow protonated particles charged with nuclear energy of $ 28 million electron volts to pass to the Krypton device and then create nuclear reactions inside the thoughtfully designed device. After completing the necessary reaction the new isotope is transferred automatically to the hot cells (the radiation rooms) through special valves, where the material is pharmaceutically prepared before sending it to the Department of Nuclear Medicine to be used for patients’ diagnosis. He also commented that the new device has been built with high accuracy and precision to ensure quality and safety.
Dr. Al Romian added that the hospital began using production of radioactive pharmaceutical isotope (Krypton 81m) and supplies to other hospitals with this material and the developing team plans to make various studies exceeding its current usages.
In addition to Dr. Faisal Al Romian, the developing team included Dr. Ibrahim Al-Jammaz, Engineer Suliman Al- Yanbawi, Engineer John Schneider and Engineer Qasim Akkam.