Technology of iodine-131 production and its application

Full text: Production: This radio iodine produced by three methods: 1) Wet method: The irradiated tellurium is dissolved in an oxidizing mixture which also converts iodine in to iodide. This is a chemical method and iodine that it produced with this method has low purity and efficiency. 2). Dry Method: The irradiated tellurium is dissolved in furnace (750 deg. C) with sublimation method and iodine absorbed in sodium solution . In this case we have more than 99.5 % purity and 80 % efficiency. We are using this type in Iran. 3) Fission fragment method: In this case the iodine separated from fission fragment directly and we have high purity (career free) and specific activity of iodine. Application: Iodine is a versatile tracer element. It is used to determine thyroid cancer metastases, and size, shape and activity of the thyroid gland. Critical organ of iodine is thyroid gland. One of the common diagnostic procedures for determining thyroid function therefore, is to measure the percentage of an administered dose of I-131 that is taken up by the gland. Usually the patient is given a very small dose of radioactive sodium iodide solution to drink, and two hours later the amount of iodine in the gland is determined by measuring the radiation coming from the neck area In Iran we produce 9 Curie iodine per week that it is used 50-150 mCi for cancer therapy and 5-20 mCi for hyperthyroidism