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A gallium scan or gallium 67 scan (also called "gallium imaging") is a type of nuclear medicine study that uses a radioactive tracer to obtain images of a specific type of tissue, or disease state of tissue. Gallium salts like gallium citrate and gallium nitrate are used. The form of salt is not important, since it is the freely dissolved gallium ion Ga3+ which is active. For these applications, the radioactive isotope gallium-67 (67Ga), which has a decay half-life of 3.26 days, is used. Gallium-67 is imaged with a gamma camera, with a SPECT camera, or with SPECT/CT hybrid machines. Gallium is taken up by tumors, inflammation, and both acute and chronic infection, allowing these pathological processes to be imaged by nuclear scan techniques. Gallium is particularly useful in imaging osteomyelitis that involves the spine, and in imaging older and chronic infections that may be the cause of a fever of unknown origin. ==Mechanism== The body generally handles Ga3+ as though it were ferric iron (Fe-III), and thus the free isotope ion is bound (and concentrates) in areas of inflammation, such as an infection site, and also areas of rapid cell division. Gallium (III) (Ga3+) binds to transferrin, leukocyte lactoferrin, bacterial siderophores, inflammatory proteins, and cell-membranes in neutrophils, both living and dead. This relatively nonspecific gallium binding allows sites with tumor, inflammation, and both acute and chronic infection to be imaged by nuclear scan techniques. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gallium 67 scan」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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