Nuclear Medicine

 Diagnosis of medical conditions is the prime condition for healing. Rapid diagnosis of illness within a plethora of symptoms reduces suffering and saves lives.
The fully digital Diagnostic Imaging facility of AMC will provide high quality diagnostic test results. New digital technology now brings the human body into sharper focus providing doctors with enhanced tools with which to diagnose health conditions.
Nuclear medicine differs from most other imaging modalities in that nuclear tests primarily show the physiological function of the system being investigated as opposed to traditional anatomical imaging such as CT or MRI.
What Is a Nuclear Scan?
Nuclear medicine differs from standard radiology or x-rays in a number of fundamental ways. In standard radiology, a source of x-rays is placed outside the patient and as the x-rays penetrate the patient, an image is created. In nuclear medicine imaging, a very small source of radioactivity is given to the patient either by mouth or by vein and the gamma rays emitted are measured by a special device called a gamma camera and the data is stored in a computer. The data in the computer is used to generate an image or provide other functional information. The source of radioactivity is in the form of a radiopharmaceutical which travels to an intended organ of interest.
In addition, nuclear medicine is a treatment modality for diseases of the thyroid and cancer. This triple capability (imaging, function, and treatment) gives nuclear medicine a unique role in medicine. Nuclear medicine provides an extremely sensitive methodology or detecting abnormalities.

Benefits
The information provided by nuclear medicine examinations is unique and often unattainable using other imaging procedures.
For many diseases, nuclear medicine scans yield the most useful information needed to make a diagnosis or to determine appropriate treatment, if any.
Nuclear medicine is much less traumatic than exploratory surgery.