Nuclear Medicine

Risk is an accepted part of everyday life. Everyone has the right to take risks and make decisions on their own. A balance should be found between service users participation in everyday activities and the carers duty of care. Social care and health policies are encouraging residents to increase their independence by being involved in the wider society such as leisure and work. It is impossible to eliminate risk completely, however minimising and being prepared for risk by preventative action.

People also benefit from atomic research in the medical field. Many people are aware of the wide use of radiation and radioisotopes in medicine. Nuclear medicine mostly uses radioisotopes which emit gamma rays from within the body. Estimates show that about one out of every three hospital patients benefits in some way from the use of nuclear medicine. Just think, every time you have an X-ray taken you are benefiting from nuclear research. Without X-rays, doctors would have a far greater time trying to set a broken bone if they even knew it was broken! Another common medical procedure that involves atomic research is the Cat-Scan. During this procedure the patient is injected with a radioactive isotope which shows the flow of blood through the

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.

Nuclear Medicine is the use of radioisotopes for diagnosis, treatment, and research. Radioactive chemical tracers emit gamma rays which provides diagnostic information about a person's anatomy and the functioning of specific organs. Radioisotopes are also utilizes in treatments of diseases such as cancer. It is estimated that approximately one in two people in Western countries are likely to experience the benefits of nuclear medicine in their lifetime.

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).

Who would have thought we would be using nuclear substances for medical purposes? Well, we are many different ways. I am going to discuss a test called the Indium Scan; this test requires the use of nuclear substances being injected into the blood stream via an IV. The amount of Indium that is giving is based on the patient and what the doctor feels as appropriate.

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.

The first question I asked Dr. Kevin was, “Is nuclear pharmacy harmful to health?” He smiled and said that basically every student will ask this question because nuclear pharmacy sounds radioactive. By showing his dosimeter on his name tag and finger, we know the amount of radiation exposure will be strictly controlled. The female student who is currently training here told us that she delivered a healthy baby last year. Different organizations will inspect the amount of radioactive particles either on lab equipment or the pig container deliver to the health organization annually. The nuclear pharmacy has spectacular applications on diagnosis for multiple disease, such as indium 111 for white blood cell scan. The half life for radioactive

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)

The most commonly used radio tracer for thyroid imaging are TC99m(pertechnetate) , iodine-123 and iodine-131. Thyroid evaluation is one of the most frequently performed nuclear medicine procedure.The equipment use to test for the radioactivity is the gamma probe and is the only device used to test for graves disease. (*3)This device is a handheld device with a Geiger-muller tube, or or scintillation counter, for intraoperative use following interstitial injection of a radionuclide, to locate regional lymph nodes by their radioactivity It is used primarily for sentinel lymph node mapping and parathyroid surgery. The Gamma Probe is also used for RSL (Radioactive Seed Localization), to locate small and non-palpable breast lesions. The sentinel node market experienced high growth in the early and mid 90's starting with melanoma sentinel node surgical search and breast cancer sentinel node staging; both are currently considered standards of care. Most surgeons propose node staging after a positive breast biopsy. New applications are being developed for parathyroid direct detection and intra-operative detection of cancerous tissue using tumor-seeking radiopharmaceuticals. Parathyroid detection is growing fast, while the intraoperative use of gamma probes for direct tumor detection is just emerging. Canberra is one of the manufactures of a gamma probe also know as a GP series- Geiger muller detractors A gamma probe is A pair of rugged halogen-quenched GM detectors serves as the basic detection elements in the GP Series detectors used for wide range gamma radiation measurement. The way this device works is the signal from the gamma probe with Geiger-muller tube and the voltage power supply go to the preamplifier to another amplifier and threshold control. This signal is split one side goes to the rate meter and audio circuit, the other signal goes to the scaler and display driver circuitry which is

The first invention of radiology began with the creation of X-rays in 1895 when Wilhelm Roentgen, a 50-year-old professor of physics at Germany’s University of Wurzburg, made a discovery that would in a very short time change medical and human history. Though, discovered by accident, Roentgen’s discovery would help detect tumors, broken bones and bullets buried within bodies, never before seen with the naked eye. Since the invention of X-rays, there had been numerous discoveries of similar inventions, from image intensifier to ultrasound to magnetic resonance imaging. Without these inventions, humans would not have been able to see the inner workings of the body or detect key information in modern times that allow us to prevent serious illnesses where other inventions proved useless since imaging plays a huge role in diagnosis. In current society, radiology’s first creation has been exposed to most citizens, whether it is to detect a broken bone at the doctor’s or to determine a person’s risk of getting cavities at the dentist’s. Although, inventions from radiology does hold risks of radiation exposure amongst its patients, the benefits of them greatly outweighs its risks.

Because not all types of radiation produce the same biological effect, the dose equivalent, expressed in Sieverts (Sv) is often used instead of absorbed dose, measured in grays (Gy). In medical imaging radiation doses are typically expressed as millisievert

I have witnessed people struggle through hardships due to disease, or some other medical condition, whether they be a stranger on the street, or even in my own family, which has prompted me to aid those in need by becoming a physician. I chose this career to due to my passion for aiding those in need, and attentiveness while performing duties, which will prove vital in this career. Furthermore, I greatly enjoy both science and mathematics, specifically in the field of atomic physics. Understanding the radionuclides, and the effects of them will be extremely important in the career. My love of physics, medicine, and my attentiveness, along with my urge to aid those in need is what prompts me to become a professional in radioactive medicine. For these reasons, I have chosen to become a Nuclear Medicine