Project Title: 14. Nuclear Medicine Technology and Other Health Applications Extension and Improvement of Radiographic and Isotopic Diagnostic Techniques RX-O01-03-(c) Scope: B) Supplement to 200 Word Summary: The leading cause of death in the United States is cardiovascular disease--deach rate, 350-400 per 100,000 population--and thus major efforts are directed act its prevention and treatment. The development of operative procedures to improve coronary blood flow requires assessment of myocardial blood flow in order to select patients for surgery, Since the patients are critically ill, the procedure must be non-traumatic. Nuclear medicine techniques are non-invasive and gentle and particularly advantageous when they can be made universally available. One proposal in these studies is development of methods for myocardial scanning using thallium 201, a potassium analogue witn a low energy gamma emission, readily detected and collimated and with a half-life of 3,08 days. A promising radionuclide for frequent sequential scanning is rubidium 82, a positron emitting analogue ef potassium with a half-life of only 75 seconds, Also, a high early concentration of carbon-11 norepinephrine has been observed in the mouse heart, suggesting that it could be developed for myocardial imaging in some circumstances, One of the causes of heart disease is hypertension and among the causes of hypertension are diseases of the adrenals. Although methods for localizing adrenal cortical lesions exist, a research effort here is to develop a technique using carbon-1ll dopamine for adrenal medullary imaging to diagnose pheochromocytoma, , = Chronic, obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a major cause of death, is reversible if diagnosed early, To date, no method has been developed for its detection in asymptomatic individuals, In collaboration with members of the BNL Department of Applied Science, a simple test, adaptable to mass screening of populations is being developed. After detection of early disease by screening, assessment of regional ventilation and perfusion for localization of the disease process is important, Thus, methods are studied using BLIP (Brookhaven Linac Isotope Producer) produced Xe-127 to replace the rather ineffective Xe-133 presently in use. The second leading cause of death in this country is cancer, and early diagnosis is essential to effective treatment, Mammography aids early diagnosis of mammary cancer, X-ray mammography is the present technique used, yet it is unsuitable for mass screening of the female population because it gives a high radiation dose to the skin and poor contrast between tumogmand normal tissue, Tc-97m has the appropriate gamma energy for maxiggm contrast and would reduce the skin radiation dose by a factor of 20. Tc-9%, produced in BLIP and fabricated into appropriate sources will be applied in mammography. Another cancer problem is the diagnosis of intra-ocular melanomas, In collaboration with an opthalmolovist,and using specially-designed detectors and collimators made by the members of the BNL Instrumentation Division and Department of Applied Science, I-123 labeled quinoline (See Continuation Sheet) 1119216 RX-58