Nuclear Medicine Scan in Rohtak | About Nuclear Medicine
All About Nuclear Medicine Procedure
Gamma camera
A gamma camera is a specialized camera that is capable of detecting a radiotracer. The gamma camera creates two-dimensional pictures of the inside of the body from different angles.
Single-photon emission-computed tomography (SPECT)
A SPECT scan uses a gamma camera that rotates around the patient to detect a radiotracer in the body. Working with a computer, SPECT creates three-dimensional images of the area being studied.
Positron emission tomography (PET)
PET involves the use of an imaging device (PET scanner) and a radiotracer that is injected into the patient's bloodstream. The PET scanner, which is able to detect emitted photons after injection, creates three-dimensional images that show how the FDG is distributed in the area of the body being studied.
In terms of diagnosis, nuclear medicine is able to:
- Provide information which is at chemical and biological level and about functional aspect of organ. Nuclear medicine provides detailed pictures of what is happening inside the body at the molecular and cellular level
- Identify disease and cellular changes in its earliest stages and determine the exact location of a tumor, often before symptoms occur or abnormalities can be detected with other diagnostic testslike CT/MRI.
- Nuclear medicine scans detect the radiation coming from a radioactive material inside a patient's body. In contrast, other imaging procedures (for example, X-ray and computed tomography or CT scan) obtain images by using machines that send radiation through the body
- Scans are performed on outpatient basis.
- Radiopharmaceutical /dye is mostly prepared in house (Gamma camera scans) as per scan requirement. Quality and quantity of dye is strictly controlled and measured by sophisticated equipment.
- This dye is injected and patient has to wait for some time ranging from few minutes to few hours (3 hours for bone scan). This time is required for dye to go and fix to organs and is variable for different scans.
- After this waiting period, image is acquired under the camera. Camera image acquisitions last from 15 to 45 minutes, depending on the type of exam and the area to be explored. The process takes place either in a lying down position, or standing in front of the detector.
- At the end of the exam, patient can resume normal daily routine, drive a car, use public transportation, go to public places and travel by plane.
- However contact with pregnant women or young children should be avoided on the day of the exam.
- Patient won't feel any particular symptom after the exam.
- The injected dye is fast eliminated via digestive and urinary tract. The radio isotope most often used for diagnosis purposes are Technetium 99m (99mTc) and Fluorine 18 (18F). They haveshort half-life (99mTc-6 hours, 18F- 110 min), meaning that it soon loses its radioactive properties. Patient needs to drink plenty of fluid to increase urinary elimination.
- At the end of the exam, patient can resume normal daily routine, drive a car, use public transportation, go to public places and travel by plane.
Most of the Nuclear Medicine examinations are without risk or contraindications.
- The only relative contra-indication is pregnancy.
- Patient is advised to avoid for a certain period of time close contact to other people especially with pregnant or children.
Nuclear medicine is improving the way cancer is detected and treated. These technologies are also playing an important role in the development of:
Personalized medicine, in which medical treatment is based on a patient's unique genetic profile.
Precision medicine - where disease is first detected and localized and then targeted using radiopharmaceuticals
