With the dose used (225 roentgens repeated weekly for 4 weeks), the tumor incidence was
70 per cent in the unprotected group, but only about 3 per cent in the group with spleen
shielding. The course of changes in thecirculating lymphocytes in the unprotected mice
‘indicated that the prolonged depression of the activity of bone marrow and lymphatic tissue was a probable factor in bringing about the lymphoid tumors.
Clinical Studies of Radioactive Materials
Investigations at Argonne National Laboratory and at Argonne Cancer Research -
Hospital have shown that total body radiation results in a large outpouring of amino acids
in the urine. Continuing study of this radiation effect in humans and experimental animals 7
will be directed toward explanation of themechanismand its’‘relation to protein synthesis r. ‘ :
accurately microcurie amounts of gammaemitters. The practicality of using such small
amounts in tracer studies is helpful in that the hazards to healthy tissues are reduced.
The pinhole camera scanner consists of a scintillation detector, image amplifier similar
to that used in television, and a fluorescent viewing screen or photographic film. The
equipment is also adaptable to any field where accurate location of one or many beta-
gamma emitters is desired, for example, making a gamma-ray photograph of radioactivity resulting from an accident ina laboratory, or in an area where radioactive fall-out
may have occurred.
A second type of scanner recently developed can be used in both tracer research and
. Clinical diagnosis. It includes ten adjacent directional scintillation counters which move
simultaneously in parallel lines, and thus the scanning procedure is completed in onetenth of the time previously necessary. The scanner has proved useful in locating
residual thyroid tissue (with iodine 131 as a tracer), and to show the size and shape of
the liver and spleen (using gold 198). With this instrument slight abnormalities barely
visible on an X-ray plate can be identified with relative certainty as metastatic thyroid
lesions. In Figure VI-A, an example is shown of a gamma-ray image of a thyroid car-
cinoma patient with six metastases. Radioiodine was used as a tracer. By the scanning
procedure, an image of the patient is formed as a pattern of dots, each of which represents
a degree of radioactivity. Thyroid cancer growths can thusbe detected, and whereit is
advisable surgery may be performed. (End of UNCLASSIFIED section.}
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emitting tracers administered to patients and laboratory animals. One type used for.
diagnostic work in humans is a pinhole gamma-ray camera whichdetects and locates
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Stateville and in many towns around Chicago, comeés from. deep wells and contains- more ~
of this rare element than occurs where the city water supply comes from Lake Michigan ‘.
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In cooperation with Stateville Penitentiary,1near Argonne National Laboratory; a sO,
study is being made of the rate at which radium idsdeposited in the body from natural drinking water and food which contain small amounts of radium. Drinking water at
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BIOLOGY ANDMEDICINE .