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| Title | Assessing Human Brain Characteristics Using Radioisotopes |
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| Subtitle | Proceedings of the 7th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Nuclear Medicine XIII. Invited Lectures by the Foreign Lecturers |
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| Authors | W. H. OLDENDORF*, M. KITANO**, S. SHIMIZU**, Y. IISAKA** |
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| Organization | *Associate Professor of Medicine (Neurology) University of California and Associate Chief Neurology, Wadsworth Hospital, Veterans Administration Center, **Department of Surgery, Division of Neurological Surgery, Keio University, School of Medicine |
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| Journal | The Japanese Journal of nuclear medicine |
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| Volume | 5 |
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| Number | 3 |
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| Page | 155-165 |
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| Year/Month | 1968/10 |
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| Article | Report |
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| Publisher | THE JAPANESE SOCIETY OF NUCLEAR MEDICINE |
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| Abstract | Many active physical and chemical processes occur continuously in the brain. We know very little about these vitally important processes because the human brain is so inaccessible to ordinary methods of assessment, encased as it is, in a tight, hard skull. Furthermore, brain functions are incredibly fragile and any loss of function is likely to be permanent. The only safe means of continous, objective methods of assessment of brain function now widely available are electrical monitoring and ultrasound echoing. These, however, define extremely restricted aspects of brain function. Radioisotopes offer a versatile tool for measuring foreign atoms in living systems. Nowhere is this capability more applicable than in brain studies since such techniques are completely atraumatic. A method is described here which should open a new window into brain function by making accessible to simple measurement a number of previously inaccessible brain characteristics. Much information about dynamic processes in brain (or any other organ) could be obftained if the following steps could be performed: 1. A radio-labeled tracer is injected into the blood at time zero. 2. At a subsequent time when the brain conten of this tracer is of interest the entire brain is removed from the skull and placed in a well-counter. 3. The isotope content is measured. 4. The brain is replaced in the head in the same condition in which it was removed. 5. The steps are repeated at intervals. |
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| Practice | Clinical medicine |
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