Nuclear medicine is concerned with the administration of unsealed radioactive substances to patients for diagnosis, therapy or research. Departments of nuclear medicine exist in most district general hospitals.
The range of nuclear medicine procedures is wide among both adults and children. Examples of common diagnostic procedures include ventilation- perfusion lung scanning for pulmonary embolism, bone scanning in benign and malignant disease, and myocardial perfusion studies in ischaemic heart disease as well as renography in the investigation of renal function and morphology. A recent survey indicated that the number of imaging studies is rising at an annual rate of about 7%. Most patients are dealt with as outpatients; only a few patients require admission for treatment. The most common therapeutic procedure is radioiodine for the treatment of thyrotoxicosis, and others include treatment of thyroid cancer and alleviating bone pain in malignancy.
The unique ability of nuclear medicine techniques to provide physiological information non-invasively means that its methods are used extensively for research. This research includes using established techniques to assess new drugs or procedures-for instance, left ventricular function studies to assess the cardiotoxicity of chemotherapeutic agents and also to develop new radiopharmaceuticals and procedures for assessment and therapy in specific disease processes. Examples of these include cerebral blood flow studies as well as receptor and antibody imaging. Positron emission tomography has been used in research for 20 years and is now making the transition into clinical practice in oncology, cardiology, and neurology.
Extracted from information prepared by:
Liz Prvulovich, Senior Registrar
Institute of Nuclear Medicine
University College London Medical School
London W1N 8AA
On behalf of the Council of the British Nuclear Medicine Society.
Regional Medical Physics Department, Newcastle General Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 6BE, UK.
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