Nuclear Medicine - NukeStation Terminus

Nuclear Medicine involves the use of radioactive isotopes (radioisotopes) to prevent,diagnose, and treat disease. Radioisotopes are utilized in diagnosis as a standard practice, and have been for over 60 years. Therapeutic uses (for treating disease) are growing as more treatments are being discovered and developed.

Diagnostic Nuclear Medicine

In nuclear medicine diagnosing techniques, very small amounts of radioactive materials are introduced into the body. Because they are attracted to specific organs, bones or tissues, the emissions they produce can provide crucial information about a particular type of cancer or disease. Information gathered during a nuclear medicine technique is more comprehensive than other imaging procedures because it describes organ function, not just structure. The result is that many diseases and cancers can be diagnosed much earlier.

Treatments

Radioimmunotherapy Research

Use of RIT is extensively done in research on Leukemia and Lymphoma. Recently, completed studies at Stanford University on patients with recurrent B-cell Lymphoma showed promising results using antibodies carrying Yttrium-90. The clinical trialsdate, conducted at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, treateing 100 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma patients showed a positive response to RIT to the extent of 80%. The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle has targeted Leukemia using the isotope iodine I-131 with promising results

RIT research is also being expanded to include 3 of the major cancer types: Lung, Colon and Breast. Remarkable success against these cancers has been observed in animal research. Now studies will begin to explore their success in humans.

Medical Imaging

Need to increase the medical technology knowledge is felt due to the possible illnesses and injuries resulting fomneuclear technology. Scientists around the world are progressing in the development of technology to assess and treat problems faced by victims of neuclear technology.

Computer Aided Tomography

Computer Aided Tomography (CAT) is causing a revolution in the medical fields such as radiology, neurology, and nuclear medicine. By combining "ordinary" X-ray technology with sophisticated computer signal processing, it is possible to generate an image of the tissues of the body which is unobscured by other organs.CAT is similar to an "ordinary" X-ray system, but it uses multiple X-rays oriented at different angles around the body. A computer is then used to extrapolate a three-dimensional image from the various two-dimensional images. In medical nuclear imaging, CAT scans are used to view organs containing a type of radiation known as gamma-emitting radionuclides.

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Why was it developed?

Nuclear magnetic resonance, or NMR, can reveal the distribution of atoms in a sample of material. It can do the same in the body, generating images of internal structure without the use of X-rays. The medical need to see inside the human body from the outside has been met for many decades by recording the differential absorption of X-rays such as in an ordinary X-ray system. However, a major deficiency of the standard method of radiography is its inability to discriminate among overlapping structures. This deficiency has been remedied in recent years by the development of X-ray computerized tomography, or CAT scanning. Although CAT scanning has proved to be an extremely useful diagnostic tool, the information its images provide is basically physical--what the organ looks like. They tell little about the functional or physiological state of the internal organs. Moreover, a type of structure known as pathological lesions can go undetected in a CAT scan unless the lesions are large enough to change the size or shape of the organ. Beyond that X-rays, even in small doses, carry a finite risk of doing physiological harm.

What is NMR imaging?

A new technique for obtaining cross-sectional pictures through the human body without exposing the patient to ionizing radiation is nuclear magnetic resonance imaging. NMR imaging produces physical information similar to the information supplied by a CAT scan but in addition also discriminates more sensitively between healthy and diseased tissue. This is possible because of the ability of NMR spectroscopy to elucidate the organic molecule structrea and throws light on the dynamic chemical processes. NMR techniques are used by biochemists to monitor metabolic reactions in animals and human beings. Development of methods for presenting NMR information in pictorial form is now empowering the clinicians with a powerful diagnostic tool. A more technical explanation of how it works. The experimental foundations of NMR spectroscopy were laid by scientists at Stanford University and Harvard University more than four decades ago; work for which they were awarded a Nobel prize in 1952.

Nuclear magnetic resonance is a three-dimensional phenomenon. The spatial resolution of a three-dimensional set of data is usually equal in all three dimensions. With three-dimensional data in hand, surfaces can be detected mathematically, enabling the clinician to determine the volume of organs or of pathologiacal lesions.

The Future of NMR imaging :

The phosphorus nucleus presents a promising contribution in imaging in addition to hydrogen. Phosphorus is a major constituent of the high-energy molecules adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and phosphocreatine, which mediate the transfer of energy in the living cell. This knowledge of concentrations can be used to draw inferrences about the metabolic status of internal organs, and it may eventually be possible to add this capability to an imaging instrument. .