Nuclear Medicine is a subspecialty within the field of radiology. It is comprised of safe and painless diagnostic testing that results in images of both body anatomy and function. Nuclear Medicine is a subspecialty within the field of radiology. It is comprised of safe and painless diagnostic testing that results in images of both body anatomy and function.
To produce a nuclear medicine scan, a small amount of radioactive material is injected or taken orally. After a period of time during which the radioactive material accumulates in one area of the body, a scan is taken using a special radiation detector that develops an image based on the detection of the energy emitted from the radioactive material.
The amount of radiation to the patient is similar to that resulting from standard X-ray examinations. Nuclear Medicine imaging procedures often identify abnormalities very early in the progress of a disease, long before many medical problems could be detected using other diagnostic methods.
Nuclear Medicine imaging is used to obtain Hepatobiliary, Bone, Thyroid, Parathyroid, Renal, Myocardial Perfusion, and MUGA (heart study) scans, as well as to track Gastric Emptying patterns.