Radioassays of yttrium-90 used in nuclear medicine.

Yttrium-90 radioassays are required in nuclear medicine at the gigabecquerel activity level (GBq) for measuring injected activity, and at the becquerel level for measuring individual tissue samples in biodistribution studies. A method of standardizing 90Y for activity using high-efficiency liquid-scintillation counting is described. Solution standards were used to establish the calibration factors for commercial radionuclide calibrators. Detection efficiencies are also presented for liquid-scintillation counting, NaI(T1) bremsstrahlung counting and Cerenkov counting.