Nuclear Medicine
Nuclear Medicine is a branch of medicine that utilizes radioactive tracers ,
known as Radioactive Isotopes, to evaluate the anatomy and physiology of
different parts of the body. By tagging or connecting this radioactive tracer to
different pharmaceuticals, we can make the tracer go to different parts of the
anatomy. In most cases the tracer is administer by IV injection. After the
tracer is administered usually there is some waiting time for the tracer to be
accumulated in the targeted anatomy. Then the patient is placed under a Gamma
camera which picks up the radiation coming from the tracer in the patient. This
is sent to a computer system and is used to create an image.
The radioactive tracers utilized here at St. Mary's are low energy and have a
short half life. (Half life is the time it takes the tracer to lose ½ of its
initial radioactivity), so we can perform these diagnostic test without exposing
the patient to a large dose of radiation.
Different parts of the body that we utilize Nuclear Medicine to help make a
diagnosis are, Liver, Spleen, Gallbladder, Bowel for GI bleed, Lung, Thyroid,
Para thyroid, Bone, Breast, Kidney, and Heart.
NOTE: Radioactive Isotopes are also utilized to treat some diseases. These
Isotopes may have a low or high energy, but have a long half life. An example
would be Radioactive Iodine (I -131), Utilized to treat thyroid cancer. We do
not perform Isotope therapy at St. Mary's.
