General Nuclear Medicine

What does the equipment look like?

During most nuclear medicine examinations, you will lie down on a scanning table. Consequently, the only piece of equipment you may notice is the specialized nuclear imaging camera used during the procedure. It is enclosed in metallic housing designed to facilitate imaging of specific parts of the body. It can look like a large round metallic apparatus suspended from a tall, moveable post or a sleek one-piece metal arm that hangs over the examination table. The camera can also be within a large, doughnut-shaped structure similar in appearance to a computed tomography (CT) scanner. Sometimes, the camera is beneath the table out of view.

A nearby computer console, possibly in another room, processes the data from the procedure.

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How is the procedure performed?

A radiopharmaceutical is usually administered into a vein. Depending on which type of scan is being performed, the imaging will be done either immediately, a few hours later, or even several days after the injection. Imaging time varies, generally ranging from 20 to 45 minutes.

The radiopharmaceutical that is used is determined by what part of the body is under study since some compounds collect in specific organs better than others. Depending on the type of scan, it may take several seconds to several days for the substance to travel through the body and accumulate in the organ under study, thus the wide range in scanning times.

While the images are being obtained, you must remain as still as possible. This is especially true when a series of images are obtained to show how an organ functions over time.

After the procedure, a physician with specialized training in nuclear medicine checks the quality of the images to ensure that an optimal diagnostic study has been performed.

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What will I experience during the procedure?

Some minor discomfort during a nuclear medicine procedure may arise from the intravenous injection, usually done with a small needle. With some special studies, a catheter may be placed into the bladder, which may cause temporary discomfort. Lying still on the examining table may be uncomfortable for some patients.

Most of the radioactivity passes out of your body in urine or stool. The rest simply disappears through natural loss of radioactivity over time.

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What are the benefits vs. risks?

Benefits

The functional information provided by nuclear medicine examinations is unique and currently unattainable by using other imaging procedures. For many diseases, nuclear medicine studies yield the most useful information needed to make a diagnosis and to determine appropriate treatment, if any.

Nuclear medicine is much less traumatic than exploratory surgery, and allergic reaction to the radiopharmaceutical material is extremely rare.

Risks

Because the doses of radiopharmaceutical administered are very small, nuclear medicine procedures result in exposure to a small dose of radiation. Nuclear medicine has been used for more than five decades, and there are no known long-term adverse effects from such low-dose studies.

As with all radiologic procedures, be sure to inform your physician if you are pregnant. In general, exposure to radiation during pregnancy should be kept to a minimum.

Allergic reactions to the radiopharmaceutical can occur, but are extremely rare.

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What are the limitations of General Nuclear Medicine?

Nuclear medicine procedures are time-consuming. They involve administration of a radiopharmaceutical, obtaining images, and interpreting the results. It can take hours to days for the radiopharmaceutical to accumulate in the part of the body under study. Imaging can take up to three hours to perform, though new equipment is available that can substantially shorten the procedure time.

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To locate a medical imaging or radiation oncology provider in your community, you can search the ACR-accredited facilities database.

This procedure is reviewed by a physician with expertise in the area presented and is further reviewed by committees from the American College of Radiology (ACR) and the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), comprising physicians with expertise in several radiologic areas.