Nuclear Medicine

Introduction

Nuclear medicine involves the use of radioactive substances for the purpose of diagnosis and treatment of a disease. It involves the use of radiopharmaceuticals which are made from radionuclides.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the scientific and technical concepts of nuclear medicine. This will be followed by an evaluation of three applications of nuclear medicine.

Discussion

As the name suggests, nuclear medicine involves the use of radiation to give information regarding a patient's anatomy and the working of specific organs in his/her body. Mostly, nuclear medicine is employed for diagnostic purposes. Diagnosis of a large number of ailments like thyroid problems, fractures and cancer is usually done by nuclear medicine. Besides being used for diagnosis purposes, various diseases are also treated through nuclear medicine. However, when compared to the former, the frequency of its use in treatment is low. Examples of therapy include radioactive Iodine (I-131) therapy.

Nuclear medicine typically involves the use of Gamma and X-ray radiations since they are non ionizing by nature. In contrast, the ionizing properties of Alpha and Gamma rays render them unsuitable for interaction with the human body.

There are several advantages of nuclear medicine. Firstly, it is highly useful in assessing body function and is quite important for the purpose of monitoring flow rate. Besides this, nuclear medicine also allows for early identification of skeletal problems this is because of the increased activity of the cells due to the radiation. Another advantage of it lies in the fact that it allows for the complete scan of the body.

At the same time, there are several disadvantages of nuclear medicine. Compared with other imaging modalities, the result of these scans is of relatively poor resolution; they are not able to reveal much anatomic detail. Moreover, despite their small radiation content, radionuclides do have a risk of radiation ...