Nuclear Medicine
Introduction
Nuclear medicine, a medical speciality, is an application of the radioactive substances in the treatment and diagnosis of a disease. Radiopharmaceutical images in nuclear medicine are taken internally which can take the form of oral or intravenous. Its external detectors as applied in diagnostic captures and forms images based on radiation emitted from by radiopharmaceuticals. Among the primary techniques applied in diagnostic nuclear medicine, for instance, is Scintigraphy, commonly referred to as Scint and, uses internal radionuclide to generate two dynamic images (van Ooijen & Jorritsma, 2017). The radiopharmaceuticals tend to emit ionizing radiation which travels in a very short distance limiting damage or unwanted side effects to body organs or structures. The goal of this essay is to describe the history, typical nuclear medicine process and commonly used intravenous radionuclides in nuclear medicine.
The History of Nuclear Medicine
The history of medicine combines various scientific contributions from different disciplines such as medicine, engineering, physics and chemistry. As a result, it has become hard for medical historians to understand the core nuclear medicine birth date. Thus it can best be placed between 1934 artificial radioactivity and 1946 nuclide production in Oak Ridge National Laboratory. It can generally be analyzed to have originated from the 1920s in Germany, Freiburg under George de Hevesy who made experiences liked to nuclides administration on rats and displayed metabolic pathways of substances coming up with the principle of Tracer. It first gained public recognition in 1946 Journal of American Medical Association (Anderson et al., 2019). In clinical use, nuclear medicine application began as early as the 1950s with the first flow of blood application done in 1960s and involved initiation of xenon-133 inhalation. It was an intra-arterial equivalent to the local distribution of cerebral activity for the patient suffering from neuropsychiatric disorders.
Typical Nuclear Medicine Process
The procedure involves the use of radioactive materials known as radiopharmaceuticals which treat diseases such as hyperthyroidism, lymphomas, thyroid cancer and bone pair from specific types of cancer. A scanning process which takes between twenty to forty-five minutes helps doctors to diagnose such conditions via tinny of radioactive materials named radiotracers. They are either injected in the bloodstream directly or inhaled or swallowed. The radiotracers are believed to accumulate in the examined organ area. Nuclear medicine process can focus on joint or bone scan, gallium scan, gastric emptying, hepatobiliary, spleen or liver scan or MUGA scan.
Commonly used intravenous radionuclides in Nuclear medicine
One of the core intravenous radionuclides include Iodine-131 sodiu, iodide in hyperthyroidism and thyroid cancer. Additional intravenous includes Yttrium -90-ibritumomab tiuxetan and iodine-131-tositumomab in refractory lymphoma condition (Mango & Ascoli, 2018). Also, I-MIBG in neuroendocrine tumours is considered as a process in nuclear medicine in addition to samarium -153 or strontium-89 that is essential in the treatment of palliative bone pain treatment.
In conclusion, nuclear medicine is an essential application that aid in the diagnosis, evaluation and treatment of various types of diseases like heart diseases, endocrine, neurological disorders, and gastrointestinal disorders among others. Thus, as applied in physics, is a vital element that serves as therapeutic and diagnostic specifically for the application of radionuclides other than sources used for therapeutic purposes. Its equipment as associated in production use, measurements and evaluation is vital in the discipline of physics in understanding the various processes associated with radioactive substances. Generally, nuclear medicine uses radiation unsealed sources like liquid and gases for diagnosis and therapy.
References
Anderson, C. J., Ling, X., Schlyer, D. J., & Cutler, C. S. (2019). Correction to: A Short History of Nuclear Medicine. In Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry (pp. C1-C1). Springer, Cham.
Mango, L., & Ascoli, G. (2018). Clinical Governance: Application in Nuclear Medicine. ARC Journal of Radiology and Medical Imaging, 3(1), 1-6.
van Ooijen, P. M., & Jorritsma, W. (2017). Medical imaging informatics in nuclear medicine. Quality in nuclear medicine (pp. 241-267). Springer, Cham.