Isotopes of iodine

The gamma-emitting isotopes iodine-123 (half-life 13 hours), and (less commonly) the longer-lived and less energetic iodine-125 (half-life 59 days) are used as nuclear imaging tracers to evaluate the anatomic and physiologic function of the thyroid. Abnormal results may be caused by disorders such as Graves' disease or Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Both isotopes decay by electron capture (EC) to the corresponding tellurium nuclides, but in neither case are these the metastable nuclides ^123mTe and ^125mTe (which are of higher energy, and are not produced from radioiodine). Instead, the excited tellurium nuclides decay immediately (half-life too short to detect). Following EC, the excited ¹²³Te from ¹²³I emits a high-speed 127 keV internal conversion electron (not a beta ray) about 13% of the time, but this does little cellular damage due to the nuclide's short half-life and the relatively small fraction of such events. In the remainder of cases, a 159 keV gamma ray is emitted, which is well-suited for gamma imaging.

Excited ¹²⁵Te resulting from electron capture of ¹²⁵I also emits a much lower-energy internal conversion electron (35.5 keV), which does relatively little damage due to its low energy, even though its emission is more common. The relatively low-energy gamma from ¹²⁵I/¹²⁵Te decay is poorly suited for imaging, but can still be seen, and this longer-lived isotope is necessary in tests that require several days of imaging, for example, fibrinogen scan imaging to detect blood clots.

Both ¹²³I and ¹²⁵I emit copious low energy Auger electrons after their decay, but these do not cause serious damage (double-stranded DNA breaks) in cells, unless the nuclide is incorporated into a medication that accumulates in the nucleus, or into DNA (this is never the case is clinical medicine, but it has been seen in experimental animal models).[5]

Iodine-125 is also commonly used by radiation oncologists in low dose rate brachytherapy in the treatment of cancer at sites other than the thyroid, especially in prostate cancer. When ¹²⁵I is used therapeutically, it is encapsulated in titanium seeds and implanted in the area of the tumor, where it remains. The low energy of the gamma spectrum in this case limits radiation damage to tissues far from the implanted capsule. Iodine-125, due to its suitable longer half-life and less penetrating gamma spectrum, is also often preferred for laboratory tests that rely on iodine as a tracer that is counted by a gamma counter, such as in radioimmunoassaying.

¹²⁵I is used as the radiolabel in investigating which ligands go to which plant pattern recognition receptors (PRRs).[6]

Iodine-124 is a proton-rich isotope of iodine with a half-life of 4.18 days. Its modes of decay are: 74.4% electron capture, 25.6% positron emission. ¹²⁴I decays to ¹²⁴Te. Iodine-124 can be made by numerous nuclear reactions via a cyclotron. The most common starting material used is ¹²⁴Te.

Iodine-124 as the iodide salt can be used to directly image the thyroid using positron emission tomography (PET).[7] Iodine-124 can also be used as a PET radiotracer with a usefully longer half-life compared with fluorine-18.[8] In this use, the nuclide is chemically bonded to a pharmaceutical to form a positron-emitting radiopharmaceutical, and injected into the body, where again it is imaged by PET scan.

Iodine-129 (¹²⁹I; half-life 15.7 million years) is a product of cosmic ray spallation on various isotopes of xenon in the atmosphere, in cosmic ray muon interaction with tellurium-130, and also uranium and plutonium fission, both in subsurface rocks and nuclear reactors. Artificial nuclear processes, in particular nuclear fuel reprocessing and atmospheric nuclear weapons tests, have now swamped the natural signal for this isotope. Nevertheless, it now serves as a groundwater tracer as indicator of nuclear waste dispersion into the natural environment. In a similar fashion, ¹²⁹I was used in rainwater studies to track fission products following the Chernobyl disaster.

In some ways, ¹²⁹I is similar to ³⁶Cl. It is a soluble halogen, exists mainly as a non-sorbing anion, and is produced by cosmogenic, thermonuclear, and in-situ reactions. In hydrologic studies, ¹²⁹I concentrations are usually reported as the ratio of ¹²⁹I to total I (which is virtually all ¹²⁷I). As is the case with ³⁶Cl/Cl, ¹²⁹I/I ratios in nature are quite small, 10⁻¹⁴ to 10⁻¹⁰ (peak thermonuclear ¹²⁹I/I during the 1960s and 1970s reached about 10⁻⁷). ¹²⁹I differs from ³⁶Cl in that its half-life is longer (15.7 vs. 0.301 million years), it is highly biophilic, and occurs in multiple ionic forms (commonly, I⁻ and IO₃⁻), which have different chemical behaviors. This makes it fairly easy for ¹²⁹I to enter the biosphere as it becomes incorporated into vegetation, soil, milk, animal tissue, etc. Excesses of stable ¹²⁹Xe in meteorites have been shown to result from decay of "primordial" iodine-129 produced newly by the supernovas that created the dust and gas from which the solar system formed. This isotope has long decayed and is thus referred to as "extinct". Historically, ¹²⁹I was the first extinct radionuclide to be identified as present in the early Solar System. Its decay is the basis of the I-Xe iodine-xenon radiometric dating scheme, which covers the first 85 million years of Solar System evolution.

Iodine-131 (¹³¹
I
) is a beta-emitting isotope with a half-life of eight days, and comparatively energetic (190 keV average and 606 keV maximum energy) beta radiation, which penetrates 0.6 to 2.0 mm from the site of uptake. This beta radiation can be used for the destruction of thyroid nodules or hyperfunctioning thyroid tissue and for elimination of remaining thyroid tissue after surgery for the treatment of Graves' disease. The purpose of this therapy, which was first explored by Dr. Saul Hertz in 1941,[9] is to destroy thyroid tissue that could not be removed surgically. In this procedure, ¹³¹I is administered either intravenously or orally following a diagnostic scan. This procedure may also be used, with higher doses of radio-iodine, to treat patients with thyroid cancer.

The ¹³¹I is taken up into thyroid tissue and concentrated there. The beta particles emitted by the radioisotope destroys the associated thyroid tissue with little damage to surrounding tissues (more than 2.0 mm from the tissues absorbing the iodine). Due to similar destruction, ¹³¹I is the iodine radioisotope used in other water-soluble iodine-labeled radiopharmaceuticals (such as MIBG) used therapeutically to destroy tissues.

The high energy beta radiation (up to 606 keV) from ¹³¹I causes it to be the most carcinogenic of the iodine isotopes. It is thought to cause the majority of excess thyroid cancers seen after nuclear fission contamination (such as bomb fallout or severe nuclear reactor accidents like the Chernobyl disaster) However, these epidemiological effects are seen primarily in children, and treatment of adults and children with therapeutic ¹³¹I, and epidemiology of adults exposed to low-dose ¹³¹I has not demonstrated carcinogenicity.[10]

Iodine-135 is an isotope of iodine with a half-life of 6.6 hours. It is an important isotope from the viewpoint of nuclear reactor physics. It is produced in relatively large amounts as a fission product, and decays to xenon-135, which is a nuclear poison with a very large thermal neutron cross section, which is a cause of multiple complications in the control of nuclear reactors. The process of buildup of xenon-135 from accumulated iodine-135 can temporarily preclude a shut-down reactor from restarting. This is known as xenon poisoning or "falling into an iodine pit".

Iodine fission-produced isotopes not discussed above (iodine-128, iodine-130, iodine-132, and iodine-133) have half-lives of several hours or minutes, rendering them almost useless in other applicable areas. Those mentioned are neutron-rich and undergo beta decay to isotopes of xenon. Iodine-128 (half-life 25 minutes) can decay to either tellurium-128 by electron capture or to xenon-128 by beta decay. It has a specific radioactivity of 2.177×10⁶ TBq/g.