Made By: Sarah Nuclear Medicine

What is general nuclear medicine? Medical Imaging using small amounts of radioactive materials to treat diseases and cancers. Use two kinds of radioactive materials… o radiopharmaceuticals o radiotracers

Different ways it is injected… The radiotracer is either injected into a vein, swallowed or inhaled as a gas and goes to the area of your body being examined. This gives off the energy in the form of Gamma rays. This will measure the amount of radiotracer that your body absorbs. This produces special pictures offering details on both the structure and function of organs and tissues.

Most Common- Bone Scan Used to reveal…  Stress fracture  Fracture  Infection  Cancer in the bone or joints Scanning can only be performed 2 hours afterwards.

Cardiac Studies Several cardiac studies are found with nuclear medicine.  Myocardial perfusion scan to access coronary heart disease.  Injection of the tracer is done while the patient is exercising on a treadmill machine.

Other Studies Brain Scan- commonly used to diagnose… o Alzheimer's disease o Strokes o Brain death o Tumor Thyroid studies- o Evaluate thyroid nodules o Function of the thyroid. Parathyroid studies - detect and localize parathyroid adenoma in patients with elevated blood calcium. Lung studies - commonly used to detect blood clots in the lungs.

How PET works Positron Emission Tomography(PET) detects the gamma rays given off at the site where a positron emitted from the radioactive substance collides with an electron in the tissue. For example, PET can show images of glucose metabolism in the brain, or rapid changes in activity in various areas of the body. * Good for detection and staging of many cancers, such as lymphoma

Does it harm the body? The radioisotopes used in nuclear medicine decay quickly, in minutes to hours, have lower radiation levels than a typical X-ray or CT scan, and are eliminated in the urine or bowel movement. But some cells are severely affected by…  Ionizing radiation –  Alpha, beta  Gamma  X-rays.

Common Uses  analyze kidney function  visualize heart blood flow and function  scan lungs for respiratory and blood flow problems  identify inflammation in the gallbladder.  evaluate bones for fractures, infection, arthritis and tumors.  determine the presence or spread of cancer in various parts of the body  identify bleeding into the bowel  locate the presence of infection.  measure thyroid function to detect an overactive or underactive thyroid  investigate abnormalities in the brain, such as seizures, memory loss and abnormalities in blood flow  localize the lymph nodes before surgery in patients with breast cancer or melanoma.

How is it performed?  The gamma camera will take a series of images.  The camera may rotate around you or it may stay in one position.  The camera may move very close to your body. Nuclear Medicine Technology video  Actual scanning time for nuclear imaging exams can take from 20 minutes to several hours and may be conducted over several days.

Benefits  The information provided by nuclear medicine examinations is unique and often unattainable using other imaging procedures.  For many diseases, nuclear medicine scans yield the most useful information needed to make a diagnosis or to determine appropriate treatment, if any.  Nuclear medicine is less expensive and may yield more precise information than exploratory surgery.

Risks  Radiation Exposure  Natural Background Radiation = 295 mRem (82%)  The greatest potential risk from a procedure using radiation is the development of cancer.

A little bit of History 1896: Henri Becquerel was the first scientist to discover radiation. Early 1900s: Georg von Hevesy used radioactive tracers to study the uptake of radioactive lead by plants. Georg also studied the movement of phosphorous in the human body by using radioactive tracers. 1929: Ernest Lawrence invented the cyclotron. The cyclotron was the first particle accelerator. With this invention, radioactive substances could be produced easily. These substances could be used as radioactive tracers for medical purposes. 1938: Glenn Seaborg along with Emilio Segre, discovered technetium-99. Technetium-99 is a common radioactive tracer used in nuclear medicine. Because of all the upcoming research at the time, a new organization was created. Marshall Brucer headed the Society of Nuclear Medicine. 1943: Georg won the Nobel Prize for the development of the radioactive tracer. 1958: Hal Anger invented the gamma camera. The gamma camera absorbs gamma radiation with a crystal. The absorption produces a flash of light, which is picked up by a computer that constructs an image from these flashes.

1896- Henri Becquerel discovered radiation  Born- Paris on December 15, 1852  He became a Professor at the Polytechnic.  Died- August 25, 1908

Georg von Hevesy  Born- August 1st, 1885  Discovered the element hafnium  Studied the effect of X-rays on the formation of nucleic acid in tumors and in normal organs.  1943: Georg won the Nobel Prize for the development of the radioactive tracer.

Ernest Lawrence  Born- US, August 8, 1901  Died- August 27th, 1958  During World War II he made vital contributions to the development of the atomic bomb, holding several official appointments in the project.  Inventor of a method for obtaining time intervals as small as three billionths of a second, to study the discharge phenomena of an electric spark.  Developed precise method for measuring the e/m ratio of the electron.

Ernest Lawrence- con’t  1929 he invented the cyclotron- a device for accelerating nuclear particles to very high velocities without the use of high voltages.

Glenn Seaborg along with Emilio Segre  Seaborg born- April 19, 1912  Serge born- February 1, 1905  Seaborg's research led to the creation of the isotope iodine-131, which is used to combat thyroid disease to this day.  Identified 8 elements… americium (95) curium (96) berkelium (97) californium (98) einsteinium (99) fermium (100) mendelevium (101) nobelium (102) Seaborgium (106)

Hal Anger  Born- May 24, 1920 in Denver, CO  Died- October 31, 2005  Developer of gamma camera revolutionized medical imaging.  The first gamma camera report by Anger was published in 1952 on the use of a pinhole camera for in vivo studies of a tumor.

Bibliography  medicine-exams medicine-exams  ear_medicines_quiet_genius/ ear_medicines_quiet_genius/   hevesy-bio.html hevesy-bio.html  rence-bio.html rence-bio.html