Nuclear Medicine is a medical specialty that is used to diagnose and treat diseases in a safe and painless way.  Nuclear medicine procedures permit the determination of medical information that might otherwise be unavailable, require surgery, or necessitate more expensive and invasive diagnostic tests.  Nuclear medicine imaging procedures often identify abnormalities very early in the progress of a disease—long before many medical problems are apparent with other diagnostic tests.  This early detection allows a disease to be treated sooner in its course when a more successful prognosis may be possible.

Radiopharmaceuticals are introduced to the patient’s body by injection, inhalation, or swallowing.  The pharmaceutical part of the radiopharmaceutical is designed to go to a specific place in the body.  The radioactive part of the pharmaceutical emits radiation known as gamma rays and is detected using a special camera known as a gamma camera.  During the exam the patient is often asked to lie on the bed while the gamma camera is placed close to the patient’s body.

Scans are used to diagnose many medical conditions and diseases. Some of the more common tests include the following:

• Heart scans - used to identify abnormal blood flow to the heart, to determine the extent of the damage of the heart muscle after a heart attack, and/or to measure heart function.
• Renal scans - used to examine the kidneys and to detect any abnormalities, such as tumors or obstruction of the renal blood flow.
• Thyroid scans - used to evaluate thyroid function.
• Bone scans - used to evaluate any degenerative and/or arthritic changes in the joints, to detect bone diseases and tumors, and/or to determine the cause of bone pain or inflammation.
• Biliary scans – used to evaluate biliary and gallbladder function
• Gallium scans - used to diagnose active infectious and/or inflammatory diseases, tumors, and abscesses.
• Brain scans - used to investigate problems within the brain and/or in the blood circulation to the brain.
• Breast scans - often used with mammograms to locate cancerous tissue in the breast.

Nuclear Medicine is also involved in the treatment of disease such as thyroid disease, blood diseases, certain types of cancers, and bone pain as a result of cancer.

For additional information about Diagnostic Imaging services at Lourdes, call (607) 798-5225.