Johns Hopkins Hospital Radiation Overdose Baltimore Maryland

Barry Poole at the F.D.A. told me that yes, the I.V.Bag that someone forgot to turn off was full of radiation.On 6-11-1999, I participated in a study at John Hopkins Hospital.In between P.E.T. scans I was sent to my room.

After 1 and a half hours I started feeling very tired. Joyce Smith who was resposible for me asked if I felt ok.I said no,I feel real tired. I looked up at my arm and noticed blood coming out my arm up the tube to an empty I.V.Bag. I asked miss Smith if that is normal.

She panicked, H.E.L.P., N.U.R.S.E.,the nurse came running in and miss Smith asked is that the bag with the xxxxx in it? The nurse looked at me not the bag and said "oh no".Well, she walked me downstairs and on the way kept asking if I could make it. I said I don't know I feel real tired. She said "YOU just got a very large dose of xxxxx".I was in no shape to argue.

Well, I got downstairs and they put another bag in as the 10 doctors went behind a protective glass in the other room.Noone ever told me what happened or what was in that bag.I finished the study and within a week told my doctor I think I have depression because I am so tired. In fact I am so tired till this day.

Months later another doctor did a thyroid test and my T.S.H. was 50, supposed to be from 1-10.My thyroid was dead, she said that is why I am feeling so tired.I started wondering why my thyroid was dead. Then I read radiation kills thyroids and wondered where I got radiation.Then I started thinking of that mishap in the hospital.I wrote the F.D.A. asking questions.

They called me months later and listened to my story and said they feel I have a complaint and transfered me to Barry Poole, a radiation expert at the F.D.A. and he said yes the bag had radiation in it, so I wanted to be sure so I went to the library and found the proff I needed to convince myself a mistake happened in the John Hopkins Medical Handbook. It said the symptoms of a very large dose of radiation was feeling very tired.

So I filed my report with the F.D.A. John Hopkins ignored my plea and after I filed arbitration the hospital says it was a preexisting condition.BULL! All of this I filed with the F.D.A. before that poor innocent Ellen Roche died.I wonder when everone except one doctor was behind that protective glass did any of them say "Do you think we could kill him?".

What Causes Thyroid Disease?
What causes thyroid problems? Besides the treatments mentioned above, there are other factors that can contribute to the development of various thyroid problems:
Exposure to radiation, such as occurred after the Chernobyl nuclear plant accident
Radiation treatment to my head, neck or chest. Radiation treatment for tonsils, adenoids, lymph nodes, thymus gland problems, or acne

What is Hypothyroidism?
Most people with thyroid disease end up hypothyroid, the situation where the thyroid is either underactive, totally unable to function, or has been surgically removed. The most common cause of hypothyroidism is an autoimmune condition known as Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, in which antibodies begin to attack the thyroid and gradually make it inactive.

Treatment for hyperthyroidism also usually results in hypothyroidism. Radioactive Iodine (RAI) treatment, and surgical removal of the thyroid to treat an overactive thyroid usually ends up leaving a patient hypothyroid.
Sticking Out Our Necks and this website are Copyright Mary Shomon, 1997-2002. All rights reserved. Mary Shomon, Editor/Webmaster

All information is intended for your general knowledge only and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment for specific medical conditions. You should seek prompt medical care for any specific health issues and consult your physician or health practitioner before starting a new treatment program. Please see our full disclaimer. The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001.

radioactive isotope or radioisotope, natural or artificially created isotope of a chemical element having an unstable nucleus that decays, emitting alpha, beta, or gamma rays, minute traces of radioactive isotopes can be sensitively detected ,they have various uses in medical therapy, diagnosis, and research,In therapy, they are used to kill or inhibit specific malfunctioning cells, Radioactive iodine can be used in the diagnosis of thyroid function and in the treatment of hyperthyroidism.

Since the iodine taken into the body concentrates in the thyroid gland, the radioaction can be confined to that organ. In research, radioactive isotopes as tracer agents make it possible to follow the action and reaction of organic and inorganic substances within the body, many of which could not be studied by any other means. They also help to ascertain the effects of radiation on the human organism (see radiation sickness).
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001.

isotope ,in chemistry and physics, one of two or more atoms having the same atomic number but differing in atomic weight and mass number, Thus isotopes of a given element have identical chemical properties but slightly different physical properties and very different half-lives, if they are radioactive (see half-life). For most elements, both stable and radioactive isotopes are known.

Radioactive isotopes of many common elements, such as carbon and phosphorus, are used as tracers in medical, biological, and industrial research. Their radioactive nature makes it possible to follow the substances in their paths through a plant or animal body and through many chemical and mechanical processes; thus a more exact knowledge of the processes under investigation can be obtained. The very slow and regular transmutations of certain radioactive substances, notably carbon-14.

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001.

radiation sickness
harmful effect produced on body tissues by exposure to radioactive substances. The biological action of radiation is not fully understood, but it is believed that a disturbance in cellular activity results from the chemical changes caused by ionization (see ion).

Some body tissues are more sensitive to radiation than others and are more easily affected,Radiation sickness may occur from exposure ,after repeated large exposure or to even very small doses in a plant or laboratory, since radiation effects are cumulative, Radiation sickness may be fairly mild and transitory, consisting of weakness, loss of appetite, vomiting, and diarrhea, Since even in a mild dose of radiation the blood-forming tissue is destroyed to some extent, there is a reduction in the supply of blood cells and platelets,There is no treatment for radiation sickness.
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001.

tracer
an identifiable substance used to follow the course of a physical, chemical, or biological process,Radioactive isotopes are more easily detected than nonradioactive ones,therefore, when the radioactive isotopes of various atoms commonly occurring in organic molecules became widely available , metabolic studies proliferated. Isotopes in common use today include carbon-14, iodine-131, nitrogen-15, oxygen-17, phosphorus-32, sulfur-35, tritium (hydrogen-3), iron-59, and sodium-24.

Two radioligands (McN5652 and C-DASB) used to label the serotonin transporter reuptake ,Radiation indicating McN5652 was highest in hypothalamus (The hypothalamus,makes up the section of the forebrain ,It is connected to the autonomic nervous system, and controls the entire endocrine system using the pituitary gland to direct the work of all the other endocrine glands.)Defines endocrinology and endocrine surgery. Quick look at the hormones produced by the thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal, pancreas, and pituitary, and what they do.Overviews, anatomical drawings, x-rays, and treatment options for thyroid nodules, thyroid goiters, and thyroid cancer.

Now more about nodules and the tests to diagnose a potential thyroid cancer. Also, more on the risks of radiation exposure, specifics on each type of thyroid cancer, and everything you could want to know about too much or too little thyroid hormone
Partial Volume Effect on 5HT2A Receptor In Normal Human Brain: Kinetic Modeling for [11C]MDL 100,907
F Yokoi, OG Rousset, S Dogan, DF Wong
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, MD

The quantification of receptor binding is affected by the partial volume effect (PVE). [11C]MDL100,907 ([11C]MDL) is a reversible tracer
Nuclear Science Division researchers glimpsed a new experimental future one Sunday last summer when a supply of the radioactive isotope carbon-11, created in the Life Sciences Division's medical cyclotron, was piped downhill to the 88-Inch Cyclotron. Within minutes the radioactive carbon had been ionized to the 4-plus charge state -- stripped of four electrons for a high positive charge -- and accelerated to 110 MeV (million electron volts) in a beam that delivered a hundred million radioactive carbon-11 ions per second onto a gold target.

Partial Volume Effect on 5HT2A Receptor In Normal Human Brain: Kinetic Modeling for [11C]MDL 100,907

F Yokoi, OG Rousset, S Dogan, DF Wong

Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, MD
The quantification of receptor binding is affected by the partial volume effect (PVE). [11C]MDL100,907 ([11C]MDL) is a reversible tracer which has a selective affinity toward 5HT2A receptor. In order to examine the effect of PVE, we analyzed [11C]MDL kinetics in the brain of normal subjects using the reversible kinetic model outlined below, before and after partial volume correction (PVC).

Twenty mCi of [11C]MDL was injected into 4 normal human subjects. The dynamic PET data (50 frames) was obtained with a PET scanner over 90 min after the tracer injection. An arterial plasma sample was obtained and corrected by plasma metabolite assay with HPLC.

A reversible 2-tissue compartment (brain free plus non-specifically bound compartment and specifically bound compartment) and 4-parameter model was applied to analyze the kinetics of [11C]MDL. The tracer distributes through all brain regions so that there is no reference region. The process of the kinetic modeling is as follows:

Estimation of K1/k2: The K1/k2 of both tracers is estimated by applying a 2-tissue and 4-rate constant model. The K1/k2 of [11C]MDL was estimated from cerebellum (Ito, 1998).

Estimation of distribution volume (VD): The VD of the tracer for receptor-rich brain gray matter regions was actually estimated with a 1-tissue and 2-rate constant model. The VD can be expressed as follows if the kinetic model is a 2-tissue and 4 rate-constant model. VD = K1/k2(1+k3/k4)

Estimation of k3/k4: k3/k4 = VD/(K'1/k'2)-1
The cerebellar K 1/k 2 is assumed to be equal to K1/k2 for all receptor-rich brain regions.

The method consists of a fully automated partial volume correction algorithm (autoPVC) that incorporates: (1) MRI-PET spatial registration, (2) tracer dependent tissue segmentation, (3) PET simulation, (4) correction of regional time-activity curves (TAC's).

The average of k3/k4 of [11C]MDL (pre- and post PVC) and % change of k3/k4 is as follows: Caudate nucleus:0.65 (min-1, pre-PVC), 0.97 (min-1, post-PVC), (+45.5%), Cerebellum: 0.71 and 0.86 (+20.5%), Frontal cortex: 5.82 and 8.21 (+70.9%), Insula:3.72 and 5.82 (+56.5%), Lingus:4.74 and 7.75 (+63.7%), Parietal Cortex:4.72 and 7.87 (+66.6%), Putamen: 0.83 and 0.55 (-34.0%), Temporal cortex:4.90 and 8.24 (+68.0%), Thalamus:0.58 and 0.73 (+24.2%).

We showed that specific binding of 5HT2A receptor binding in living human brain changed significantly after PVC. The observed radioactivity in all brain regions of the PET image was changed after PVC. This suggests the need for PVC in all such modeling approaches.

Ito H., Nyberg S., Halldin C., Lundkvist C., Farde L. PET imaging of central 5HT2A receptors with carbon-11MDL 100,907.J. Nucl. Med. 39:208-214 (1998).
Two radioligands (McN5652 and C-DASB) used to label the serotonin transporter reuptake ,Radiation indicating McN5652 was highest in hypothalamus (The hypothalamus,makes up the section of the forebrain ,It is connected to the autonomic nervous system, and controls the entire endocrine system using the pituitary gland to direct the work of all the other endocrine glands.)Defines endocrinology and endocrine surgery.

Quick look at the hormones produced by the thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal, pancreas, and pituitary, and what they do.Overviews, anatomical drawings, x-rays, and treatment options for thyroid nodules, thyroid goiters, and thyroid cancer. Now more about nodules and the tests to diagnose a potential thyroid cancer. Also, more on the risks of radiation exposure, specifics on each type of thyroid cancer, and everything you could want to know about too much or too little thyroid hormone

Michael
Hooversville, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.