Development and deployment of 141 Ce fiducial marker sources for supplementing nuclear diagnostic procedures

A facile method to prepare 141 Ce based fiducial marker sources was developed to put forward an alternate to 99m Tc markers routinely used during nuclear imaging procedures. Cerium oxide microspheres were prepared as source substrate by ‘internal gelation process’. ‘State-of- the art’ analyzing tools were used for characterizing the substrate. Neutron irradiation of microspheres in ‘Dhruva’ reactor was optimized. Post irradiation and quality evaluation, the sources were enclosed in an in-house developed portable device. 141 Ce sources containing 37–59 MBq (1.0–1.6 mCi) of 141 Ce were supplied to three nuclear imaging centres. Newly developed 141 Ce fiducial markers could successfully supplement real time SPECT imaging procedures.