Autoradiography In Biology And Medicine

Autoradiography in Biology and Medicine focuses on the applications of autoradiography in medicine and biology, including photographic processes, emulsions, and response of films to isotopes and x-rays. The book first offers information on the meaning of autoradiography, including the etymology of autoradiography, photographic emulsion as a scientific instrument, and the relationship of biologists and autoradiography. The publication then examines the photographic process and comparative response of commercial and scientific emulsions. Discussions focus on fixation, washing, emulsion, response of films to electrons, x-rays, and gamma rays, and response of films to beta ray spectra of isotopes. The text takes a look at commercial photographic materials for autoradiography, autoradiographic image, and resolution. The manuscript then reviews the estimation of dose and exposure time, sources of error, and techniques. Topics include chemical variables, estimation of exposure time, errors occurring during the preparation of the autoradiogram for exposure, and contour autoradiography. The book is a valuable reference for readers interested in autoradiography.

The bibliography is designed to be added to that compiled by G.A. Boyd in ''Autoradiography in Biology and Medicine.'' It primarily covers the literature of the years 1954 through 1957, but it contains also some entries for 1953 omitted from Boyd's work, and those entries for 1955 encountered in the literature search. No attempt was made to include articles which use autoradiography merely is in adjunct to the technique of paper chromatography. (auth).

In biological literature, several definitions of quantitative autoradio graphy are given. The term is defined as either the determination and com parison of the density of silver grains above various structures or under varying conditions, or the determination of absolute quantities of radio activity. In both these cases, photometric measurement serves for more rapid and more exact evaluation of grain densities than would be possible by visual counting of the grains. The equipment generally used for the photometric measurement of silver grains consists of a microscope, a photocell, an electronic amplifier system and a display unit. Grains can be made accessible to photometric evaluation by various kinds of microscopic illumination: 1. Substage bright-field illumination. 2. Substage dark-field illumination. 3. Incident dark-field illumination. 4. Vertical bright-field illumination. With all these types of illumination, the relationship between the luminous flux I absorbed by the film, scattered into the objective and reflected or diffracted, and the flux 10 which is not affected by the film is used as a measure of grain density. Since these are differential measurements, the light beam I transmitted by the film is in itself a measure of grain density if the luminous flux 10 incident on the grains is kept constant. This approach has been used in a large number of measuring setups.