What Student Need to Know about Radionuclide imaging in Radio Diagnosis

The discipline of nuclear medicine consists of radionuclide imaging and radionuclide therapy with the number of patients having radionuclide imaging studies being much greater than those who have radionuclide therapy. The use of radionuclide imaging and therapeutic procedures is increasing because they have an important role in the management of patients with cancer. Radionuclide imaging is the most often performed procedure in molecular imaging. Nuclear medicine has been performing molecular imaging since the first radionuclide studies that were performed with 131I sodium iodide for diagnosing and treating thyroid cancer. Images obtained with a moving detector are called scans, whereas images obtained with a stationary camera device are called scintiphotographs. To perform radionuclide imaging, a radioactive material (radiopharmaceutical) is administered and the radiation emitted by the radiopharmaceutical detected by sensitive radiation detectors located outside of the patient being studied. Radiophar