title: Effects of radioactive decay and their implications on in vivo metabolic imaging.
abstract: In the context of medical radionuclide imaging, possible consequences of molecular disruption that is due to radioactive decay and of the positron range are discussed. Radioactive decay may cause extensive disruption to the labeled molecule particularly if the transformation involves the creation of an inner shell vacancy. The movement of a positron away from the site of emission implies that the positron will annihilate in a region not disrupted by the decay. Neglect of the photon angular correlation disregards information on the physical and chemical state of the sample.
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008660:Metabolism; D011851:Radioactivity; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed