Nuclear Medicine is a modern medical discipline that utilizes minute amounts of radioactivity to examine organ function, structure, diagnostic evaluation and therapeutic management of various diseases.
The department is the first comprehensive nuclear facility in central India, equipped with state of the art imaging equipment including
- Dual headed gamma camera with SPECT facility (SIEMENS EVO EXCEL)
SPECT SCAN- Single-photon emission computed tomography, or SPECT, produces axial "slices" of the organ in question because the gamma camera rotates around the patient.
Areas of bone healing or cancer progression usually light up on SPECT scans, so this type of test is being used more frequently to help diagnose hidden bone fractures. SPECT scans can also diagnose and track the progression of cancer that has spread to the bones.
- Most advanced PET CT (SIEMENS Biograph)
PET scans also use radiopharmaceuticals to create three-dimensional images. The main difference between SPECT and PET scans is the type of radiotracers used. While SPECT scans measure gamma rays, the decay of the radiotracers used with PET scans produces small particles called positrons. A positron is a particle with roughly the same mass as an electron but oppositely charged. These react with electrons in the body when these two particles combine they annihilate each other. This annihilation produces a small amount of energy in the form of two photons that shoot off in opposite directions. The detectors in the PET scanner measure these photons and use this information to create images of internal organs.
- PET Scan, PSMA, TRODAT, Cardiac and Neuro viability PET Scan.
- Nuclear Scans like Thyroid, Bone, Renal (DMSA, DTPA, EC ), HIDA, Parathyroid, Gastric emptying and all other Technetium scan.
- Iodine Scan and low and high dose Iodine therapy.
- Cardiac stress lab having thallium scan
What are nuclear medicine scans used for?
Scans are useful to diagnose many medical conditions and diseases. Some of the more common tests include the following:
- Renal scans. These are useful to examine the kidneys and to find any abnormalities. These include abnormal function or obstruction of the renal blood flow.
- Thyroid scans. These useful to evaluate thyroid function or to better evaluate a thyroid nodule or mass.
- Bone scans. These useful to evaluate any degenerative or arthritic changes in the joints, to find bone diseases and tumours, or to determine the cause of bone pain or inflammation.
- Gallium scans. These useful to diagnose active infectious or inflammatory diseases, tumours, and abscesses.
- Heart scans. These are useful to identify abnormal blood flow to the heart, to determine the extent of the damage of the heart muscle after a heart attack, or to measure heart function.
- Brain scans. These are useful to investigate problems within the brain or in the blood circulation to the brain.
- Breast scans. These are often used in conjunction with mammograms to locate cancerous tissue in the breast.
- SPECT scans are primarily used to diagnose and track the progression of heart disease, such as blocked coronary arteries. There are also radiotracers to detect disorders in bone, gall bladder disease and intestinal bleeding.
- The major purpose of PET scans is to detect cancer and monitor its progression, response to treatment, and to detect metastases.
- A combination instrument that produces both PET and CT scans of the same body regions in one examination (PET/CT scanner) has become the primary imaging tool for the staging of most cancers worldwide.