Medicina Nuclear

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What is Nuclear Medicine?
Nuclear medicine specialists use safe, painless, and cost-effective techniques to image the body and treat disease. Nuclear medicine imaging is unique, because it provides doctors with information about both structure and function. It is a way to gather medical information that would otherwise be unavailable, require surgery, or necessitate more expensivediagnostic tests. Nuclear medicine imaging procedures often identify abnormalities very early in the progress of a disease—long before many medical problems are apparent with other diagnostic tests. Nuclear medicine uses very small amounts of radioactive materials (radiopharmaceuticals) to diagnose and treat disease. In imaging, the radiopharmaceuticals are detected by special types of cameras that workwith computers to provide very precise pictures about the area of the body being imaged. In treatment, the radiopharmaceuticals go directly to the organ being treated. The amount of radiation in a typical nuclear imaging procedure is comparable with that received during a diagnostic x-ray, and the amount received in a typical treatment procedure is kept within safe limits. Today, nuclear medicineoffers procedures that are essential in many medical specialties, from pediatrics to cardiology to psychiatry. New and innovative nuclear medicine treatments that target and pinpoint molecular levels within the body are revolutionizing our understanding of and approach to a range of diseases and conditions.

What Happens During a Nuclear Medicine Procedure?
Nuclear medicine tests (also known asscans, examinations, or procedures) are safe and painless. In a nuclear medicine test, small amounts of radiopharmaceuticals are introduced into the body by injection, swallowing, or inhalation. Radiopharmaceuticals are substances that are attracted to specific organs, bones, or tissues. The amount of radiopharmaceutical used is carefully selected to provide the least amount of radiation exposureto the patient but ensure an accurate test. A special camera (PET, SPECT or gamma camera) is then used to take pictures of your body. The camera detects the radiopharmaceutical in the organ, bone or tissue and forms images that provide data and information about the area in question. Nuclear medicine differs from an x-ray, ultrasound or other diagnostic test because it determines the presence ofdisease based on biological changes rather than changes in anatomy.

Safety
Nuclear medicine procedures are among the safest diagnostic imaging exams available.To obtain diagnostic information, a patient is given a very small amount of a radiopharmaceutical. Because such a small amount is used, the amount of radiation received from a nuclear medicine procedure is comparable to, or often timesless than, that of a diagnostic x-ray.The nuclear medicine team will carefully perform the most appropriate examination for the patient’s particular medical problem and thereby avoid any unnecessary radiation exposure. Although we don’t think much about it, everyone is continually exposed to radiation from natural and manmade sources. For most people, natural background radiation from air andspace, rocks, soil, and even atoms in your own body, accounts for 85 percent of the radiation you receive annually. Additional exposure to radiation comes from consumer products such as household smoke detectors, color television sets, and luminous clock dials.The remaining radiation is from x-rays and radioactive materials used for medical diagnosis and therapy. Most nuclear medicine procedures exposepatients to about the same amount of radiation as they receive in a few months of normal living.

1940 of Nuclear Medicine The History 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
One of the earliest instances of nuclear medicine occurred in 1946 when radioactive iodine, via an “atomic cocktail,” was first used to treat thyroid cancer.The thyroid gland took up the radioactive iodine and the radiation...