Nuclear Medicine Essay

If you are this type of doctor you have to make sure all of the scanning images are very clear and readable. Next, you have to decide which images show the healthiest or pathological areas. Then, you have to observe and read over the results and care of the patient during the scanning procedures and make sure you get the correct data for the right person. They

Nuclear energy is used today for energy supply and about 15% of the world’s energy comes from nuclear power plants some forms of medicine such as nuclear medicine rely

The medical field also benefits from nuclear energy. Nuclear medicine is a field of medicine in which radioactive materials are used to diagnose and treat medical disorders

Another form of imaging is ultrasound. Ultrasound, which uses very high frequency sound, is directed into the body. And because the tissue interference's reflect sound, doctors are able to produce, by use of a computer, a photograph or moving image on a television. Ultrasound has many application uses on the body, but is more commonly used in examinations of the fetus during pregnancy, because use of radiation may affect the outcome of the baby. Some other practices for ultrasound include examination of the arteries, heart, pancreas, urinary system, ovaries, brain, and spinal cord. And because sound travels well through fluids it is a very useful technique for diagnosing cysts( which are filled with fluid), and fluid filled structures such as the bladder. And since sound is absorbed by air and bone it is impossible to use a ultrasound on bones or lungs.

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.

This will also help exclude bilateral obstructions in high risk patients. Sonography has the ability to use Doppler, which aids in assessing renal perfusion. This procedure is non-invasive, does not use radiation, or contrast. There is less long term effects that may affect the patient later on down the road. The technologists have the ability to see blood flow of the kidney. This imaging modality has the capability of detecting cysts, obstructions, fluid collection by using sound waves. With many patients having allergies to contrast, having claustrophobia by being in a MRI or possibly a CT, this modality allows the patient to be comfortable without any fears. There are some factors which can affect the diagnosis such as obesity, barium in the intestines from a previous barium study, and intestinal gas (Hopkins medicine.org, 2018). Sonography seems to be the best way to go when it comes to diagnosing a patient with renal failure. The ability to determine fluid, abscesses, shape, location, and size of organs seems to best way to help protecting patients from radiation damage and contrast allergies. Kidneys are an important part of life, it is imperative we do what is needed to make sure they are functioning to keep us

Ultrasound, otherwise known as sonography, uses sound waves that penetrate the body through tissue and fluid to produce pictures with a small handheld transducer. The transducer is also called a probe that comes in different shapes and sizes and are specifically used on certain anatomy. The transducer assembles the sounds that bounce back and a computer then uses those sound waves to generate an image. “A Doppler ultrasound, also called color Doppler ultrasonography, is a special ultrasound technique that allows the physician to see and evaluate blood flow through arteries and veins in the abdomen, arms, legs, neck and the brain or within the liver or kidneys” (Abbara). Luckily, sonography does not use radiation to produce images, which means there is no exposure of any kind that harms the patient and is a non-invasive procedure. The cost of exam varies on geographical region and the time frame of an exam depends entirely on the reasoning for the exam, the structures being imaged and the cooperation of the patient themselves. Patients usually do not have any problems when undergoing an ultrasound exam and are normally required to lay still in a prone position. At times they may be instructed to turn a different way or hold their breath a couple of times to see different aspects of an organ. The exam itself can come with some contraindications according to Suhny Abbara MD from radiologyinfo.org, “Ultrasound waves are disrupted by air or gas; therefore, ultrasound is not an ideal imaging technique for air-filled bowel or organs obscured by the bowel. In most cases, barium exams, CT scanning, and MRI are the methods of choice in such a setting”. To become a sonography technician, one must be enrolled in a school program that requires class time and at least 1000 clinicals hours to be eligible to take the registry exam. Many of these programs can take place at a 2 and

The nuclear medicine technologist use radionuclides to diagnose and treat diseases. Radionuclides means unstable atoms that release radiation spontaneously and they are purified and compounded to form radiopharmaceuticals that prepare and administer by nuclear medicine technologist. These technologists are particularly specialized health care professional. The radioactive drugs appear higher or lower concentration in the abnormal area of the patient’s body than in the normal area.

Therapeutic nuclear medicine is used in many different ways to help and treat patients when they are fighting cancer or other diseases. Doctors will take the steps to do whatever they can to make sure that the patient will survive or at least achieve improvement in their health to some degree. When a patient is undergoing surgery to remove the cancer cells, the doctors will often have them go through radiation beforehand to shrink the cancer or tumor down to a size that is easier to remove and to ensure they are not removing more than necessary. Often during surgery, the surgeons will again treat the patient with radiation while they are open so that the radiation is hitting the direct tumor or cancer cells being targeted. Another benefit is that it provides the radiation treatment without having to direct it through the skin again. This reduces the amount of radiation that the patient is getting to a certain degree. Once the surgery is over, the patient will often have to continue with more treatments to make sure that, if anything was missed, it will be attacked by the radiation and be prevented from spreading. Eliminating the cancerous cells can often take more than one type of medical therapy, and it can often take multiple treatments (Radiation

Due to some circumstances being out of our control, whether it is through natural means of toxicity from radiation or unnatural means of radiation, how do we protect ourselves? The Earth is covered in natural background radiation. Terrestrial, cosmic and radon radiation are all a part of our environment. Even if manmade radiation and nuclear radiation didn’t exist, we would still be exposed to toxic, unhealthy sources of biological changing substances. How do our bodies recover from an assault to our immune systems and resume a healthy life from ionizing radiation that can cause cancer? How do we become proactive, and responsible for our own health outcome? Can we eliminate from our bodies unwanted toxins, carcinogens, free radicals, and ionizing substances? Do we have control over our health after a large dose of radiation from a nuclear accident, or treatment from radiation therapy? Evidence shows that we do. Just as there are natural sources of radiation, there are natural ways to cleanse our bodies and use nutrition to detoxify, rejuvenate, and restore health when our immunity has been compromised from natural or unnatural sources of radiation.

Radiotracers help doctors diagnose and evaluate the degree of severity of the disease. The tracers are injected, swallowed, or inhaled. Special cameras used by the doctor to detect molecular information then detect the emissions from the radiotracers. One of the most important procedures in nuclear medicine is the MRI, or the magnetic resonance

In 2007, it is predicted that almost 1.5 million people will be diagnosed with cancer in the United States (Pickle et al., 2007). More than half of these cancer patients will undergo the use of radiation as a means for treating cancer at some point during the course of their disease (Perez and Brady, 1998). Cancer, a disease caused by an uncontrollable growth of abnormal cells, affects millions of people around the world. Radiotherapy is one of the well known various methods used to treat cancer, where high powered rays are aimed directly at the tumor from the outside of the body as external radiation or an instrument is surgically placed inside the body producing a result of internal radiation. Radiation is delivered to the cancerous regions of the body to damage and destroy the cells in that area, terminating the rapid growth and division of the cells. Radiation therapy has been used by medicine as a treatment for cancer from the beginning of the twentieth century, with its earliest beginnings coming from the discovery of x-rays in 1895 by Wilhelm Röntgen. With the advancements in physics and computer programming, radiation had greatly evolved towards the end of the twentieth century and made the radiation treatment more effective. Radiation therapy is a curative treatment approach for cancer because it is successful in killing cancerous tumor cells and stop them from regenerating.

The use of radioactive elements in medicine is still growing to this day. Many oncologists use it to treat their patients who have cancer. Many cancer patients use this option. They use the radiation to kill off cancer cells. X-ray technicians or radiologists will also use it to administer x-rays to people who may have a broken bone, or need an MRI. The patient is injected with a radioactive material that helps the doctor be able to see inside the body better, whether it be with pictures or ultrasound. Radioactive material is defined as “material that contains radioactivity and thus emits ionizing radiation. It may be material that contains natural radioactivity from the environment or a material that may have been made radioactive.” (The Healthy Physics Society). This happens when someone needs a colonoscopy. They have to drink or are injected with this liquid that helps their organs and all other masses in the body be seen better by the radioactive materials.