Nuclear
medicine is a medical specialty which uses safe, painless,
and cost-effective techniques both to image the body and treat
disease.
More Information call - 906-225-3545
What
is Nuclear Medicine?
Nuclear
medicine is a medical specialty which uses safe, painless, and cost-effective
techniques both to image the body and treat disease.
Nuclear
medicine imaging is unique in that it documents organ function and
structure, in contrast to diagnostic radiology which is based upon
anatomy. It is a way to gather medical information that may otherwise
be unavailable, require surgery, or necessitate more expensive diagnostic
tests.
As
an integral part of patient care, nuclear medicine is used in
the diagnosis, management, treatment and prevention of serious
disease. Nuclear medicine imaging procedures often identify
abnormalities very early in the progression of a disease - long
before some medical problems are apparent with other diagnostic
tests. This early detection allows a disease to be treated early
in its course when there may be a more successful prognosis.
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Nuclear medicine
uses very small amounts of radioactive materials, or radiopharmaceuticals,
to diagnose and treat disease.
Radiopharmaceuticals
are substances that are attracted to specific organs, bones, or
tissues. When radiopharmaceuticals are introduced into the body,
they produce emissions. A special type of camera, a gamma or PET
camera, is used to transform these emissions into images and data
which provide information about the area of the body being imaged.
Although Nuclear
Medicine is commonly used for diagnostic purposes, it also provides
valuable therapeutic applications such as treatment of hyperthyroidism,
thyroid cancer, blood imbalances and pain relief from certain types
of bone cancers.
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