title: Measurement of Bremsstrahlung as a practical alternative to use of a liquid scintillation counter for the assessment of low activities of 90Y.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The use of 90Y for nuclear medicine therapies has steadily increased over the last 10 years. High administered activities are measured in a calibrated re-entrant ionization chamber, while the most sensitive method of assessment of low activities uses a liquid scintillation counter. This method requires the samples to have an acceptably low quench, and therefore heavily coloured samples must undergo chemical processing before assessment. An alternative method has been investigated to measure low activities of 90Y in a sodium iodide well counter by detection of associated Bremsstrahlung.
  
  
  METHODS
  Test samples of 90Y with activities 0.5-730 Bq were measured in a well counter and a liquid scintillation counter, with counting times of 4 h per sample. Both counters were investigated for a relationship between count rate and activity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The efficiency of the well counter was found to be 0.08 count x s(-1) x Bq(-1), for a specified vial and sample volume. This is poor compared with the liquid scintillation counter efficiency of 1.0 count x s (-1) x Bq(-1). The uncertainty in measurement of a sample with unknown activity was calculated for a 4 h count time: +/-8.0% at 730 Bq and +/-45% at 6 Bq for the well counter; and +/-8.0% and +/-8.1%, respectively, for the liquid scintillation counter. These errors are dominated by the initial measurement of activity to determine counting efficiency, using a calibrator with an accuracy of +/-8%. If long counting times of both samples and background radiation are practicable, it has been found that a well counter can successfully be used to assess low activities of 90Y.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Physics and Bioengineering, Royal United Hospital, Bath, UK. laura.sawyer@ruh.nhs.uk
authors.forename: Laura J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Sawyer
authors.forename: Martyn J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.forename: Sarah C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Hiscock
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D011827:Radiation; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D012588:Scintillation Counting / Q000379:methods*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012974:Sodium Iodide; D015021:Yttrium Radioisotopes
chemical_list: D015021:Yttrium Radioisotopes; D012974:Sodium Iodide