Recoil effect on β-decaying in vivo generators, interpreted for 103Pd/103mRh

The use of Auger emitters as potential radiopharmaceuticals is being increasingly investigated. One of the radionuclides of interest is 103m Rh, which can be produced from 103 Ru or 103 Pd in an in vivo generator. A potential problem, however, is the recoil of the 103m Rh out of the carrier molecule and even out of the target cell. In order to determine the likelihood of this happening in the 103 Pd/ 103m Rh, case calculations were made to prove that this does not happen. The equations were generalised for all radionuclides with an atomic mass of 10–240 as a tool for determining the recoil threshold of any β-emitting radionuclide.