Thread by @jay_hickey

Start off with a simpler tracer from #LawsonCyclotron: [18F]sodium fluoride or NaF. By smacking heavy oxygen atoms (18O) with high energy protons, a little alchemy changes the O atom to fluorine. 1/

This gets quickly processed to make it safe for human injection and after a quality check getsshipped to imaging sites. The sodium comes from the saline solution the 18F is dissolved into.2/

Mostly commonly used for bone scans to look for cancer metastases. Think toothpaste - the fluoride binds to teeth (bone) where the top layer is weakened or growing. 3/
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27634981/

NaF has also been used to assess coronary artery disease 4/
thecardiologyadvisor.com/home/topics/ch…

This is an approved tracer for human administration @lawsonresearch and is available for interested researchers. The 2 hour half-life means we can ship this around Ontario as well, particularly to our @SchulichMedDent partners in @CityWindsorON