Nuclear medicine is a medical specialty
involving the application of radioactive substances in the diagnosis and
treatment of disease.
In nuclear medicine procedures,
radionuclides are combined with other elements to form chemical
compounds, or else combined with existing pharmaceutical compounds, to
form radiopharmaceuticals.
These radiopharmaceuticals, once administered to the patient, can localize to specific organs or cellular receptors.
This property of radiopharmaceuticals
allows nuclear medicine the ability to image the extent of a disease
process in the body, based on the cellular function and physiology,
rather than relying on physical changes in the tissue anatomy.
In some diseases nuclear medicine studies can identify medical problems at an earlier stage than other diagnostic tests.
Nuclear medicine, in a sense, is
“radiology done inside out” or “endo-radiology” because it records
radiation emitting from within the body rather than radiation that is
generated by external sources like X-rays.
Treatment of diseased tissue, based on
metabolism or uptake or binding of a particular ligand, may also be
accomplished, similar to other areas of pharmacology.
However, the treatment effects of radiopharmaceuticals rely on the tissue-destructive power of short-range ionizing radiation.
In the future nuclear medicine may
provide added impetus to the field known as molecular medicine. As
understanding of biological processes in the cells of living organism
expands, specific probes can be developed to allow visualization,
characterization, and quantification of biologic processes at the
cellular and subcellular levels.
Nuclear medicine is a possible specialty
for adapting to the new discipline of molecular medicine, because of its
emphasis on function and its utilization of imaging agents that are
specific for a particular disease process.
