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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 29, No. 6. 1966.

Research

Research

Considerable research has been carried out in New Zealand and overseas to develop methods of using radioisot opes to localise tumours of the brain. Radioactive technetium and compounds labelled with radio-iodine have been injected and the tumour localised using the specially sensitive scanning devices.

Perhaps the most interesting development in the application of radioisotopes in medical research is the quantitative estimation of previously undetectable but vital biological compounds. This requires a sound knowledge of chemistry, biochemistry and radiochemistry. One of the techniques under development aims at the estimation of growth hormone in blood. In the normal child this hormone has a concentration in blood of the order of a thousandth 'of a microgram per millilitre and can only be measured by radioactive methods. An estimation of the level of growth hormone in the blood can determine if the lack of growth observed in a child is due to deficiency in growth hormone. For this test a pure extract of growth hormone is labelled , with radio-iodine. By a combination of extremely sensitive tests it is possible to estimate the amount of growth hormone in the patient's blood from a small sample of blood taken from the patient.