Nuclear medicine refers to medicine (a pharmaceutical) that is attached to a small quantity of radioactive material (a radioisotope). This combination is called a radiopharmaceutical. There are many different parts of the body. Which radiopharmaceutical is used will depend upon the condition to be diagnosed or treated.

Radiopharmaceuticals are introduced into the patient's body by injection, swallowing, or inhalation. The amount given is very small. The pharmaceutical is designed to go to a specific place in the body where there could be disease or an abnormality.

The radioactive part of the radiopharmaceutical that emits radiation, known as gamma rays (similar to x-rays), is then detected using a special camera called a gamma camera. This type of camera allows the nuclear medicine physician to see what is happening inside your body.

During this imaging procedure, the patient is asked to lie down on a bed and then the gamma camera is placed a few inches over the patient's body. Pictures are taken over the next few minutes. These images allow expert nuclear medicine physicians to diagnose the patient's disease.

Absolutely, like any medicine they are prepared with great care. The risk of a reaction is 2-3 incidents per 100,000 injections of x-ray contrast media.

Although exposure to the radioactivity in very large doses can be harmful, the radioactivity in radiopharmaceuticals is carefully selected by the nuclear medicine physician to be safe.

Nuclear medicine can diagnose many different kinds of diseases. It can be used to identify abnormal lesions deep in the body without exploratory surgery. The procedures can also determine whether or not certain are organs are functioning normally.

For example, nuclear medicine can determine whether or not the heart can pump blood adequately, if the brain is receiving an adequate blood supply, and if the brain cells are functioning properly or not. Nuclear medicine can determine whether or not the kidneys are functioning normally, and whether the stomach is emptying properly.

It can determine patient's blood volume, lung function, vitamin absorption, and bone density. Nuclear medicine can locate the smallest bone fracture before it can be seen on an x-ray.

It can also identify sites of seizures (epilepsy), Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease. Nuclear medicine can find cancers, determine whether they are responding to treatment, and determine if infected bones will heal.

After a heart attack, nuclear medicine procedures can assess the damage to the heart. It can also tell physicians how well newly transplanted organs are functioning.

Yes, for instance, thousands of patients with hyperthyroidism are treated with nuclear medicine (using radioactive iodine) every year. It can be used to treat certain kinds of cancers (thyroid, pheochromocytoma) and it can treat bone pain that is a result of cancer.

Nuclear medicine can detect the radiation coming from inside a patient's body. All of the above mentioned procedures (except nuclear scans), expose the patient to radiation form outside the body using machines that send radiation through the body. As a result, nuclear medicine determines the cause of a medical problem based on organ function in contrast to the other diagnostic tests, which determine the presence of disease based on anatomy or structural appearance. One nuclear medicine procedure, called a PET (positron emission tomography) scan, precisely localizes many types of diseases in the body just by determining how the disease uses sugar. No other imaging method has the ability to use our body's own functions to determine disease status.

Absolutely, many patients have undergone several scans as part of their medical evaluation. Your doctor will help you decide what is right for you.

It is best to stop breastfeeding your baby for anywhere from a few hours to a few days after your nuclear medicine study. For many therapy procedures, nursing may have to stop completely. This depends on what kind of study you are having and the radiopharmaceutical that will be used. Your doctor will give you the best advice.

After most nuclear medicine procedures, it is generally best to drink a lot of fluids and urinate as frequently as you can. This helps to flush the remaining radioactivity out of your body. The length of time you need to do this will depend on the radiopharmaceutical that was used. Again, it is best to ask your doctor.