[Evaluation of calcium content in the human spine by in vivo neutron activation]

A technique of in vivo neutron activation analysis (NAA) of calcium levels in lumbar, thoracic and cervical segments of the spinal column separately and as a whole has been developed. Special device provides selective irradiation by neutrons of a vertebral segment under study while a highly-sensitive spectrometric unit registers radionuclides induced in bone tissue during radiation exposure. For radiation exposure 5 or 10 238Pu-Be neutron sources with 5.10(7) neutrons s-1 output of each source are used. The spectrometric unit consists of 4 scintillation detectors with NaI (Tl) crystals of 150 mm in diameter and 100 mm- thickness arranged in a line tightly one after another. The time of exposure depends on the number and mutual arrangement of the neutron sources and is selected given the dose equivalent at depth of positioning of the spinal cord does not exceed 1 cZv (REM), the quality factor for fast neutrons equals 10. The recording duration is 20 min, the intervals between radiation exposure and recording do not exceed 3 min. The magnitude of the total error of an individual measurement estimated by reproducibility of the data obtained in 2 series of in vivo NAA of the spinal calcium levels in 6 volunteers with the use of 5 neutron sources amounts to an average of 4.8%. When used 10 sources, this error can be reduced to 2.0-3.2%.