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A member asked:
What are the differences between a radionuclide and a radiopharmaceutical in medical imaging?
3 doctors weighed in across 2 answers
Nothing significant: These two term are often used interchangeably for the agent injected to create Nuclear Medicine scan images.
Answered 1/11/2018
2.8k views
Semantics. Chemical.: A radiopharmaceutical (RP) is any chemical (drug) tagged w/ a radioactive atom or substance. Often times the radioactive atom is "attached" to the chemical after it's made (tag). A Radionuclide (RN), in contrast, is attached to the chemical *as* it's made, so strictly speaking, it's part of the compound (which is why radionuclides r often used in PET scans). All RNs r RPs, but not all RPs are RNs.
Answered 1/11/2018
2.3k views
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