what is the difference between radiology and nuclear medicine?
January 4, 2010 by
Filed under nuclear medicine
what is the difference between radiology and nuclear medicine?
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Nuclear medicine is a branch of medical imaging that uses small amounts of radioactive material to diagnose or treat a variety of diseases, including many types of cancers, heart disease and certain other abnormalities within the body.
Radiology is the medical specialty directing medical imaging technologies to diagnose and treat diseases. Originally it was the aspect of medical science dealing with the medical use of electromagnetic energy emitted by X-ray machines or other such radiation devices for the purpose of obtaining visual information as part of medical imaging. Radiology that involves use of x-ray is called roentgenology. The modern day radiological imaging is no longer limited to the use of x-rays, and now includes technology-intensive imaging with high frequency sound waves, magnetic fields, and radioactivity.
Nuclear medicine is considered one of the modalities that radiologists or nuclear medicine specialists use to learn physiological information about the body. In many centers, nuclear medicine is part of the Radiology department.
What’s unique about nuclear medicine is that it’s the only imaging modality (with the exception of MRI) that provides physiological information about what’s happening in a structure being imaged. In other modalities like CT or radiography or even ultrasound, energy is used from an external source to obtain images of what the physician is trying to look at. With nuclear medicine, however, radiopharmaceuticals (sometimes called radiotracers) are used (typically injected intravenously) such that the emission of energy during the decay of certain radioisotopes is used in order to obtain very important information about how certain organs are functioning (using special gamma cameras) or to learn functional information pertaining to the kidneys, lungs, heart, bones, brain, just about any part of the body is imaged.
Many nuclear medicine departments still are involved with calculating and administering I-131 (beta emitter) for the treatment of various thyroid pathologies.