Nuclear medicine is a specialized area of radiology that uses very small amounts of radioactive substances, or radiopharmaceuticals, for studying the performance and structure of an organ. The generation of images in nuclear medicine is a combination of many different disciplines, among them, chemistry, physics, mathematics, computer technology and medicine. This branch of radiology is often used to help in diagnosing and treating abnormalities at an early stage in the progression of a disease, such as a thyroid cancer.
Since X-rays go through the soft tissues, such as intestines, muscles and blood vessels, it is difficult to visualize them with conventional X-rays, except that a contrast agent is used to make it easier to visualize the tissue. The nuclear imaging method allows the visualization of the structure and performance of organs and tissues. The degree of absorption or “uptake” of the radiopharmaceutical by a specific organ or tissue may indicate the level of performance of the organ or tissue under study. Therefore, diagnostic X-rays are mainly used to study the anatomy, while nuclear images are used to study the performance of organs and tissues.
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