Quantitative Assessment and Reduction of Long-Term Autoradiographic Background

Abstract

Quantitative autoradiography can measure distribution patterns in an animal exposed to radiolabeled compounds. A comparison of autoradiographs of rat brain containing low levels of 14C showed that a highly variable background signal had been produced. This resulted in several overexposed autoradiographs which could not be quantitatively compared. The background, believed to be produced by light emanating from the phosphor coating in the X-ray cassette, was a major impediment because it hindered correct analysis of the specimen. this article details our experiments demonstrating the sources of variance contributing to background and offers methods for its reduction. We found that placement of black polyethylene plastic between the slides and phosphor in the X-ray film cassette minimized autoradiographic background and effectively eliminated the effects caused by inherently different levels of radioactivity in the glass slides. Keywords: Quantitative; Autoradiography; Phosphor; Background; Variance reduction; Rat; Central nervous system.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1990
Accession Number
ADA228684

Entities

People

  • Karen R. Olson
  • Lucinda Famous
  • Rajesh Krishnan
  • Richard K. Traub

Organizations

  • United States Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Analysis Of Variance
  • Brain
  • Cassettes
  • Central Nervous System
  • Classification
  • Data Science
  • Dielectric Polymers
  • Films
  • Information Science
  • Materials
  • Nervous System
  • Radiation
  • Regression Analysis
  • Security
  • Statistical Analysis
  • X Ray Film
  • X Rays

Readers

  • Economics
  • Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).
  • Medical Imaging.