Katz
Nuclear Erica Medicine
Nuclear medicine is a branch or specialty of medicine and medical imaging that
uses radionuclides and relies on the process of radioactive decay in the diagnosis and
treatment of disease. In nuclear medicine therapy, the radiation treatment dose is
administered internally (e.g. intravenous or oral routes) rather from an external radiation
source.
The history of nuclear medicine is rich with contributions from gifted scientists
across different disciplines in physics, chemistry, engineering, and medicine. The
multidisciplinary nature of nuclear medicine makes it difficult for medical historians to
determine the birthdate of nuclear medicine. This can probably be best placed between
the discovery of artificial radioactivity in 1934 and the production of radionuclides by
Oak Ridge National Laboratory for medicine related use, in 1946.
In nuclear medicine procedures, elemental radionuclides are combined other
elements with to form chemical compounds, or else combined with existing pharmaceutical
compounds, to form radiopharmaceuticals. These radiopharmaceuticals, once
administered to the patient, can localize to specific organs or cellular receptors. This
property of radiopharmaceuticals allows nuclear medicine the ability to image the extent
of a disease-process in the body, based on the cellular function and physiology, rather
than relying on physical changes in the tissue anatomy. In some diseases nuclear
medicine studies can identify medical problems at an earlier stage than other diagnostic
tests.
Treatment of diseased tissue, based on metabolism or uptake or binding of a
particular ligand, may also be accomplished, similar to other areas of pharmacology.
However, the treatment effects of radiopharmaceuticals rely on the tissue-destructive
power of short-range ionizing radiation.
Erica Katz
Nuclear Medicine