Medical isotopes supply is likely to return to 80% by end of October

European supplies of medical isotopes used as radiotracers in molecular imaging could return to nearly 80% of normal in the last week of October, as the result of a contingency plan worked out by the European Union and national authorities.

European hospitals have been enduring a severe shortage of medical isotopes that has reduced the capacity of nuclear medicine departments by more than half (BMJ 2008;337:a1575, 5 Sep, doi:10.1136/bmj.a1575).

Wolfram Knapp, president elect of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine, said that authorities had agreed to allow …