(95g)Tc and (96g)Tc as alternatives to medical radioisotope (99m)Tc

We studied (95g)Tc and (96g)Tc as alternatives to the medical radioisotope (99m)Tc. (96g)Tc ((95g)Tc) can be produced by (p, n) reactions on an enriched (96)Mo ((95)Mo) target with a proton beam provided by a compact accelerator such as a medical cyclotron that generate radioisotopes for positron emission tomography (PET). The γ-rays are measured with an electron-tracking Compton camera (ETCC). We calculated the relative intensities of the γ-rays from (95g)Tc and (96g)Tc. The calculated γ-ray intensity of a (96g)Tc ((95g)Tc) nucleus is as high as 63% (70%) of that of a (99m)Tc nucleus. We also calculated the patient radiation doses of (95g)Tc and (96g)Tc, which were larger than that of (99m)Tc by a factor of 2–3 based on the applied assumptions. A medical PET cyclotron which can provide proton beams with energies of 11–12 MeV and a current of 100 μA can produce 12 GBq (39 GBq) of (96g)Tc ((95g)Tc) for operation time of 8 h, which can be used for 240 (200) diagnostic scans.