Nuclear medicine is a safe and painless way to detect a variety of conditions, such as heart disease, arthritis, infection and cancer. X-rays also show your anatomy, but cannot determine if your organ tissue or bone function is normal.
Nuclear medicine can picture your entire body in one procedure, with more detail than other procedures. As a result, it can diagnose multiple medical conditions early for the best outcomes.
Nuclear medicine is used to locate, as well as plan, evaluate, and adjust cancer therapy. Examples of cancers monitored by nuclear medicine include ovarian, lung, colorectal, lymphoma, breast, and head and neck.
Positron emission tomography (PET) and coincidence imaging can determine if a mass is benign or malignant, without an invasive procedure. MRI and CT scans cannot always do this.
Since its first clinical use in 1937, diagnostic and therapeutic nuclear medicine procedures have developed for use in neurology, oncology, cardiology, endocrinology, orthopedics, gastroenterology, urology and pediatrics. While nuclear medicine is commonly used for diagnostic purposes, it also has valuable therapeutic applications. For example, nuclear medicine is used in the treatment of hyperthyroidism (an overactive thyroid gland) and thyroid cancer. Nuclear medicine also helps to provide pain relief from certain types of bone cancer.
Nuclear medicine procedures are generally not recommended for pregnant women, because unborn babies are more sensitive to radiation than either adults or children. If you are pregnant, or think that you may be, your doctor may order a different type of diagnostic test.
