The administered activity is the amount of radioactive material (dose) given in diagnostic or therapeutic procedures.

The accumulation of radioactive substances in organs or tissues is used for diagnosis and therapy.

See also Bioaccumulation Factor and Administered Activity.

A bone scan or bone scintigraphy is used to in evaluate diseases of the skeletal system. Scintigraphic whole body bone imaging is a highly sensitive method to show changes in bone metabolism. Increased metabolic activity is seen as a hot spot.
The study requires the injection of a 99mTc-labeled radiopharmaceutical (most commonly methylene diphosphonate (MDP), hydroxymethylene diphosphonate (HMDP) or hydroxyethylene diphosphonate (HDP)). The activity administered for bone scanning is around 500 MBq (300-1100 MBq, 8-30 mCi), depending on age and weight of the patient. After 2-5 hours, the emitted gamma rays are detected by gamma cameras. The produced planar images include anterior and posterior views of the skeleton.
Multiphase bone scintigraphy is used to differentiate a bone process from tissue pathology. In some cases additional SPECT imaging is helpful to better characterize the presence, location and extent of disease.

A gas ventilation scintigraphy is a diagnostic imaging test of lung ventilation with radioactive noble gases during breathing maneuvers, e.g. with krypton (81mKr) or xenon (133Xe).
The radioactive gas is administered by a mask and requires a special delivery and trapping system (gas trap). The radioactivity in the lungs is measured with a gamma camera and is subsequently evaluated.
The use of krypton or xenon gases involves problems like the relatively short half-lives (about 15-30 seconds) and relatively high costs of xenon and krypton. The short half-life requires that the scan is performed directly after administration of the gas. In addition, the gaseous radiopharmaceutical is expelled from the body almost quantitatively within a few minutes of completing the study.
A ventilation scintigraphy combined with a pulmonary perfusion scintigraphy is highly sensitive for the detection of pulmonary embolism.
Radioactive noble gases are widely used as a ventilation agent to diagnose pulmonary embolism. However, 81mKr and 133Xe are rare and expensive, which limits their continuous availability. Tc99m-Technegas can be an alternative ventilation agent with the advantage of being less expensive and available daily.

See also Inhalation Scintigraphy.