Nuclear Medical Imaging (NMI)

Nuclear medicine has been around for more than 50 years now and stems from the discovery of x-rays and artificial radioactivity. In 1946, nuclear medicine made a monumental breakthrough when radioactive iodine led to the complete disappearance of cancer in a patient’s thyroid. Nuclear medicine became widely used in the 1950’s to measure the function of the thyroid, to diagnose thyroid disease, and for the treatment of patients with hyperthyroidism. By the 1970’s nuclear medicine was used to visualize other organs of the body other than the thyroid such as scanning of the liver and spleen, localizing brain tumors, and images of the gastrointestinal track. The use of digital computers and detection of heart disease arose in

Nuclear medicine technology has advantages and disadvantages just as any other career. Using nuclear medicine technology could diagnose a lot of harmful diseases. Also, it is more effective treatment for most categories of cancerous diseases and conditions in some medical institutions. This type of medicine technology helps physicians perform their responsibility of patients’ therapy easily; moreover, when a serious disease developed in the patient’s body, the x-rays of this medicine technology could scan the most sensitive part of the patient’s body.

Medicine has developed into an astonishing work of pure art over the years. From an old village healer crushing the simplest herbs in ancient times, to large machines administering chemical formulas to patients today. The newest addition to this artwork is Nuclear Medicine. Nuclear Medicine is a medicine that deals with the use of radioactive substances entering the body to attach/ attack cells. Whether it be to diagnose, test, or to treat, this nuclear technology has driven the medical and chemistry world into the future.

In nuclear medicine diagnosing techniques, a very small amount of radioactive material is introduced into the body. Because medical isotopes are attracted to specific organs, bones or tissues, the emissions they produce can provide crucial information about a particular type of cancer or disease. Information gathered during a nuclear medicine technique is more comprehensive than other imaging procedures because it describes organ function, not just structure. The result is that many diseases and cancers can be diagnosed much earlier.

In the Nuclear Medicine department, the two most common procedures performed are bone scans and VQ scans (ventilation/perfusion scan). During a Nuclear medicine procedure, the patient is either injected or inhales radioisotopes, which then causes the patient to become the source of radiation that is picked up by a gamma camera. A VQ scan is a two phase scan that requires the patient to be injected with a radioisotope and inhale a gas infused with radioisotopes. This scan is used to determine the blood and air flow of the lungs and detect possible pulmonary emboli. The radioisotopes used for this exam include radioactive Xenon gas and technetium. As for the bone scan the patient is

When it comes to medical imaging, there are several different options to choose from for different testing. There are similarities and differences; pros and cons to each. This paper will discuss MRI, CT, and ultrasound. They each have important things to know regarding radiation dose, cost, and reasons to use one over another.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a way of medically imaging the body with the use of a magnetic field and radiofrequency waves. (1) As image quality of MRI continues to improve, more MRI exams are being ordered. Increasing MRI exams leads to increased wait times. Due to current wait lists, the health status of patients may decrease, influencing the type of treatment the patient will require once removed from the wait list. (7) The advances in technology have increased in the past decade, with MRI procedures are vastly growing to provide superior diagnostic quality compared to other modalities. New technologies are also allowing for faster scan times and further increased image quality. (9)

Being a nuclear medicine technology means creating images of different area of the patient’s body and preparing radioactive drugs and administer them to patients undergoing the scans. The technologists

Therapeutic nuclear medicine has come a long way over the last decade. More than 20 million Americans now benefit each year from nuclear medicine procedures used to diagnose and treat a wide variety of diseases (SNMMI and Safe/Beneficial Medical Uses of Radiation, 2017).

Nuclear Cardiology:Uses Radioactive chemicals to assess myocardial blood flow, evaluate the pumping function of the heart as well as visualize the size and location of a heart attack. (1)

How has the increase in use and availability of MRI imaging throughout the U.S. Healthcare system contributed to the rise in cost of MRI imaging procedures?

There are approximately 5,000 nuclear medicine centers in the United States. Together, they perform 18 million procedures every year. Nuclear medicine is a branch of medical imaging that uses radioactive material to diagnose, determine the severity of an illness and treat a variety of diseases. An example of nuclear medicine is the use of radioactive iodine to treat hyperthyroidism or thyroid cancer.The use of radioiodine is the most common hyperthyroid treatment in the United States.

By investigating where the radiotracer is built-up or not built-up we can examine abnormalities in the organ. This process allows us to inspect certain organs and their function. It also allows us to detect cancer.

PET scan stands for positron emission tomography and is a type of nuclear imaging technique. The PET scan also measures the metabolic activities of the brain. It allows the doctors to check if there are diseases in the body. This scan uses radioactive tracers and radionuclide. The tracer is injected into the vain in our arm and is absorbed by the surrounding tissues which are picked by the scanner. The body will react to the tracer so that it can indicate the condition of the tissues. The PET scan can also measure blood flow, oxygen use, drug activity, glucose metabolism and tissue pH in the body. PET scans are commonly used to detect if the person has cancer, heart problems or brain disorders. Radionuclides which are used in the PET scan are

Modern medicine has undergone major advancements over the past years. One of these developments include the capacity to retrieve crucial information about the human body and its health beyond the use of manual diagnostic techniques. This is referred to as Medical or Diagnostic Imaging.