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University Medical Center Groningen

History

NUCLEAR MEDICINE AND MOLECULAR IMAGING - HISTORY

 

The University Medical Center Groningen and University of Groningen are pioneers in the application of radio-isotopes in medicine. This aspect of their history started in 1952 when the first in vivo and in-vitro measurements were performed. For in vivo measurements, external detectors were initially employed; later, a scanning detector system was used. Radio-immunoassays were developed. The first gamma camera was installed in 1965 and with the availability of the 99mTc generator, new in-vivo diagnostic procedures were set up. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) became possible in 1972 after installation of a large cyclotron at the Kernfysisch Versneller Insituut (KVI), a university institution. Pioneering PET studies were performed in a close cooperation between Nuclear Medicine, the KVI and the University Laboratory of Organic Chemistry. This led to financing by the Dutch government of a fully equipped PET-Center on hospital grounds in 1988. Nuclear Medicine (headed by Dr.D.A.Piers) and PET-Center (headed by Prof.W.Vaalburg) developed via separate lines during the 1990s. Because of the clinical potential of nuclear imaging in diagnostics and radionuclide therapy, Nuclear Medicine and PET-Center were re-united in 2005. The Department of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging was formed as a novel discipline group of the UMCG, headed by Prof.Dr. R.A.Dierckx 

The first PET scanner in Groningen
The first PET scanner in Groningen
The cyclotron of the department
The cyclotron of the department
Last modified:23 November 2012 10.21 a.m.