Radiopharmaceuticals and Radio Opaque Contrast Media: Practice, Prospects and Potentials

The compounds or substance which emit radiation and which are used in medicine area called radiopharmaceuticals. Radio opaque substances are those compounds (both inorganic and organic) that have the property of casting a shadow on x-ray films. Radiopharmaceuticals preparations are the preparations containing one or more radionuclides. Radionuclides are radioactive and transform spontaneously into other nuclides. The unstable nuclei undergo spontaneous nuclear changes in order to achieve stability by emitting radiation are called radioisotopes or radionuclides. The radioactive substances disintegrates or decays with the emission of certain particles or certain quantities of energy which is always characteristics of the isotope.The present article gives various ideas about radiations, radioactivity, radioisotopes, radio opaque and contrast media, radioactive pollution as well as quality control and also pharmaceutical applications of radioisotopes.