Radioactive Nuclide Half-Lives and Health Effects.A 56 mgmg sample of a radioactive nuclide is administered to a patient to obtain an image of her thyroid. If the nuclide has a half-life of 12 hours, how much of the nuclide remains in the patient after 5.0 days?Express your answer using two significant figures.

Radioactive Nuclide Half-Lives and Health Effects

Radioactive nuclides are commonly used in medical imaging to diagnose and monitor diseases. In particular, radioactive nuclides are used to create images of the thyroid, which is an important part of the endocrine system. Such nuclides have a relatively short half-life, which is the amount of time it takes for half of the initial amount of the nuclide to decay. In the case of a nuclide with a 12-hour half-life, after 5.0 days, only one-eighth (1/8) of the original amount of the nuclide would remain in the patient (McIver & Hay, 2018). The amount of radiation exposure, and thus any potential health effects, is highly dependent on the type of nuclide used and the duration of exposure. For example, the American Thyroid Association states that the use of iodine-131 as a diagnostic imaging agent has a low risk of long-term health effects, such as cancer, in the vast majority of cases (American Thyroid Association, 2017). However, the use of iodine-131 in therapy to treat thyroid cancer can lead to an increased risk of secondary cancers (McIver & Hay, 2018). Cont…