In-vivo neutron activation analysis: principles and clinical applications

In vivo neutron activation has opened a new era of both clinical diagnosis and therapy evaluation, and investigation into and modelling of body composition. The techniques are new, but it is already clear that considerable strides can be made in increasing accuracy and precision, increasing the number of elements susceptible to measurement, enhancing uniformity, and reducing the dose required for the measurement. The work presently underway will yield significant data on a variety of environmental contaminants such as Cd. Compositional studies are determining the level of vital constituents such as nitrogen and potassium in both normal subjects and in patients with a variety of metabolic disorders. Therapeutic programs can be assessed while in progress. It seems likely that by the end of this century there will have been significant progress with this research tool, and exciting insights obtained into the nature and dynamics of human body composition