Nuclear Medicine

Nuclear medicine is a type of medical specialty that is used to diagnose and treat diseases using radioactive substances in a safe and painless way. It helps in determination of the medical conditions which is unavailable or require surgery or require very expensive diagnostic tests. It gives information of the molecular activity in the body which is very helpful in diagnosis and treatment of disease in its early stage.

Nuclear medicine is medicine in which small amount a radioisotope or radio material is used. The combination of this radioisotope with medicine is called a radiopharmaceutical. There are different radiopharmaceuticals for treatment of different disease or diagnosis of different parts of the body.

Nuclear medicine procedures provide medical information that may be unavailable or may require surgery and invasive diagnostic tests some of which might be painful. These procedures often identify diseases very early long before some medical problems are apparent with other diagnostic tests. Apart from extensive use in diagnosis Nuclear medicine plays an active role in treatment. Hyperthyroidism, blood disorders, bone pain due to cancer are examples of conditions treatable with nuclear medicine. Nuclear medicine procedures are among the safest diagnostic imaging exams available. Nuclear Medicine in Diagnostic and imaging Nuclear diagnostics involve recording radiation emitted from within the body rather than radiation that is generated by external sources like X-rays. In nuclear medicine imaging, radiopharmaceuticals are taken intravenously or orally. Then Gamma cameras capture and form images from the radiation emitted by the radiopharmaceuticals.

Nuclear medicine scans differ from radio-diagnostic tests because it determines the presence of disease based on biological changes rather than changes in anatomy (such as formation of tumors, lumps etc). Commonly used imaging modalities in Nuclear medicine are Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Nuclear Medicine Therapy Nuclear medicine also used as a therapy to treat many types of cancer, tumors, heart disease, blood disorders, endocrine and neurological disorders also gastrointestinal disorders. Some of the diseases do not response to a chemotherapy, such as Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, may go under radioimmunotherapy (RIT). Radioimmunotherapy is personalized cancer treatment which involves radiation therapy with immunotherapy to mimic the cellular activity within the immune system. Nuclear medicine is also used in personalized medicine.

Works Cited

1. International Atomic Energy Agency. (2019). Nuclear Medicine Resources Manual. Retrieved from https://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/Pub1777_web.pdf
2. Ziessman, H. A., O'Malley, J. P., & Thrall, J. H. (2019). Nuclear Medicine: The Requisites. Elsevier.
3. Fahey, F. H., & Zukotynski, K. (Eds.). (2016). Atlas of Nuclear Medicine. Springer.
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7. Wong, K. K., Gould, M. K., & Wald, C. (Eds.). (2021). Nuclear Medicine: A Case-Based Approach. Springer.
8. Saha, G. B. (2019). Fundamentals of Nuclear Pharmacy (7th ed.). Springer.
9. Vallabhajosula, S. (Ed.). (2018). Molecular Imaging: Radiopharmaceuticals for PET and SPECT. Springer.
10. Lin, E. C., & Buxbaum, S. G. (Eds.). (2020). Nuclear Medicine Physics: The Basics (9th ed.). Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.