Abstract
The radioisotope technetium-99m(99mTc) is widely used in nuclear medicine for a variety of scanning procedures. On occasion, it may be necessary to perform such studies on a nursing mother, and it is important to know what dose of radioactive material a nursing infant might receive and how soon after the isotope administration the mother may resume breast-feeding. Technetium is one of the halide elements and is handled, biologically, much like iodine.1 Like iodide,2,3 the pertechnetate ion (99mTcO4-) is concentrated in the thyroid gland1,4 and stomach5,6 and in the breast milk of nursing mothers4-6 and women with the amenorrhea-galactorrhea syndrome.7 In this report we present studies on 99mTcO4- in breast milk, including its binding to milk protein, biologic half-life, and calculations of radioactivity that might be ingested by a nursing infant.
Published Version
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