Then the chemical is injected into the patient. The monoamine transporter protein transports the tracer throughout the body, mainly to highly blood-dependent organs. The result is a targeted accumulation of said tracer which emits gamma radiation. [4]PROS AND CONS OF SHORT HALF-LIFE The extremely short half-life of carbon-11 (20.39 minutes) has both advantages and disadvantages. These can be seen in the table below: PROS CONS The short half-life means that it takes 20.39 minutes for the carbon 11 tracer to decay into boron 11. 11b is a chemically stable radioisotope of boron. The patient is radioactive for only a short period of time. The synthesis/amalgamation of radiotracers. This includes the synthesis of the required compounds, achieving both purity of the radiochemical and high activity in a short amount of time and on a small scale. The complex process in correlation with its short half-life requires the radioisotope to be produced on site.