title: An improved in vivo neutron activation system for measuring kidney cadmium.
abstract: An in vivo neutron activation system for measuring kidney cadmium has been redesigned, firstly to reduce ambient dose levels and, secondly, to improve the cadmium signal to neutron dose ratio by modifying the neutron spectrum from 238Pu/Be, by interposing a beryllium premoderator. The ambient dose was reduced by a factor of seven. The overall system performance (lower limit of detection for a given dose) was improved by 40-50%. This 238Pu/Be based system now performs as well as or better than analogous 252Cf systems, without the drawback of the relatively short half life of 252Cf.
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Space Research, University of Birmingham, UK.
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Franklin
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Armstrong
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Chettle
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Scott
mesh_terms: D002104:Cadmium / Q000032:analysis*; D004867:Equipment Design; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D007668:Kidney / Q000737:chemistry*; D009501:Neutron Activation Analysis / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D002104:Cadmium