Nuclear Medicine

Nuclear Medicine is a medical specialty that uses small amounts of radioactive tracers to create images of organs and to assess how they function, and in some cases to treat certain diseases. Nuclear medicine physicians interpret these scans and may also give targeted radioactive treatments. What they do: Nuclear medicine specialists perform and interpret scans such as bone scan, thyroid scan, kidney scan, heart (myocardial perfusion) scan and PET-CT, assess organ function and detect infection, inflammation or cancer spread, and provide radionuclide therapy for conditions like thyroid cancer or hyperthyroidism and some other tumours. Common conditions evaluated or treated: staging and follow-up of many cancers using PET-CT, detection of bone metastasis and bone infections, evaluation of heart blood flow and previous heart damage, assessment of kidney function and drainage, thyroid nodules, goitre and overactive thyroid (hyperthyroidism), detection of occult infections and inflammation, targeted radioactive iodine therapy for thyroid cancer and hyperthyroidism, some rare neuroendocrine and bone tumours treated with radionuclide therapy. When to visit: usually you are referred by an oncologist, cardiologist, endocrinologist, nephrologist or other specialist for a specific nuclear medicine scan or therapy, such as PET-CT for cancer staging, bone scan for bone pain in cancer, thyroid scan or radioactive iodine treatment, kidney scan to assess function, or heart perfusion scan before major procedures. Diagnostic and treatment methods: giving a small dose of radioactive tracer by injection, mouth or inhalation, waiting a set time and then performing imaging with a gamma camera or PET-CT scanner, analysing how the tracer is taken up by different organs to assess function and detect disease, PET-CT combining functional and anatomical imaging for cancer, giving therapeutic doses of radioactive iodine or other agents to target specific tissues, following strict safety protocols to minimise radiation to patients, staff and family members, and coordinating with other specialists to integrate scan results into overall treatment plans.