Nuclear imaging is a specialized area of diagnostic radiology which enables physicians to evaluate bones, cardiac blood flow and other organ function to detect the presence of disease, infection or dysfunction. These “physiologic images” of specific body processes are used to assess a wide variety of medical conditions that cannot be seen on other imaging tests. Furthermore, nuclear medicine imaging often identifies abnormalities very early in the progression of a disease.
This imaging technique uses small amounts of radioactive materials that are detected by a special gamma camera to produce images. These materials, which are administered to patients orally or intravenously, expose patients to minimal radiation. The benefits of nuclear imaging are substantial, providing a non-invasive and painless test that can detect problems at the molecular level.
