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Nuclear medicine is a subspecialty
of radiology that uses
radiopharmaceuticals, taken intravenously
or orally by a patient, which can localize to
specific organs or cellular receptors.
The
radiopharmaceuticals emit radiation that is captured
by external detectors (gamma cameras), which forms
images that give physicians the ability to see the
extent of a disease-process in the body. Nuclear
medicine tests differ from most other imaging
modalities because it primarily shows the
physiological function of the system being studied
as opposed to traditional anatomical imaging such as
CT or MRI. |
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Its applications include the study
and detection of: kidney function, heart blood flow,
lung function, cancers, bowel bleeding, infection,
arthritis and tumors, among many others. For some
diseases, nuclear medicine studies can identify
medical problems at an earlier stage than other
diagnostic tests.
In a process called
image fusion or co-registration, nuclear medicine
scans are superimposed on images such as CT or MRI
to highlight the part of the body where the
radiopharmaceutical is concentrated.
The resulting image
provides precise information about the anatomy and
function of organs or tissues, and allows for more
accurate diagnosis which wouldn’t be possible with
either test alone. |
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