Radiopharmacology is the study and preparation of radiopharmaceuticals, which

are radioactive pharmaceuticals. Radiopharmaceuticals are used in the field of nuclear medicine as
tracers in the diagnosis and treatment of many diseases. Many radiopharmaceuticals use technetium-
99m (Tc-99m) which has many useful properties as a gamma-emitting tracer nuclide.
In the book Technetium a total of 31 different radiopharmaceuticals based on Tc-99m are listed for
imaging and functional studies of
the brain, myocardium, thyroid, lungs, liver, gallbladder, kidneys,skeleton, blood and tumors.
The term radioisotope has historically been used to refer to all radiopharmaceuticals, and this usage
remains common. Technically, however, many radiopharmaceuticals incorporate aradioactive tracer atom
into a larger pharmaceutically-active molecule, which is localized in the body, after which the radionuclide
tracer atom allows it to be easily detected with a gamma camera or similar gamma imaging device. An
example is fludeoxyglucose in which fluorine-18 is incorporated into deoxyglucose. Some radioisotopes
(for example gallium-67, gallium-68, and radioiodine) are used directly as soluble ionic salts, without
further modification. This use relies on the chemical and biological properties of the radioisotope itself, to
localize it within the body.

In vivo (Latin for "within the living") is experimentation using a whole, living organism as opposed to
a partial or dead organism, or an in vitro ("within the glass", i.e., in a test tube or petri dish) controlled
environment. Animal testing and clinical trials are two forms of in vivo research. In vivo testing is often
employed over in vitro because it is better suited for observing the overall effects of an experiment on a
living subject.

In vitro (Latin: in glass) studies in experimental biology are those that are conducted using components
of an organism that have been isolated from their usual biological surroundings in order to permit a more
detailed or more convenient analysis than can be done with whole organisms. Colloquially, these
experiments are commonly called "test tube experiments". In contrast, in vivostudies are those that are
conducted with living organisms in their normal intact state, while ex vivo studies are conducted on
functional organs that have been removed from the intact organism.
Common examples of in vitro experiments include work that uses (a) cells derived from multicellular
organisms (cell culture or tissue culture), (b) subcellular components (e.g. mitochondria orribosomes), (c)
cellular or subcellular extracts (e.g. wheat germ or reticulocyte extracts), or (d) purified molecules in the
test tube (often proteins, DNA, or RNA, either individually or in combination).

Utilizing nuclear medicine techniques to examine a patient having a lymphoma
Radiologic tests, in which, for example, x-rays are used to form an image of a body target.