What is the half-life of Technetium-99m?

The half-life of Technetium-99m is approximately 6 hours. This relatively short half-life is one of the reasons why Technetium-99m is widely used in various medical imaging procedures, particularly in nuclear medicine. It allows for timely imaging that provides functional information about organs and tissues with minimal radiation exposure to the patient.

In nuclear medicine applications, having a half-life around this duration is advantageous because it permits enough time to conduct imaging studies while ensuring that the radioactivity in the patient decreases rapidly afterwards, reducing the overall radiation dose. The properties of Technetium-99m, including its half-life and the energy of its gamma emissions, make it an ideal choice for a range of diagnostic tests, such as myocardial perfusion imaging and bone scans, among others.