Super Sahyog Nuclear Imaging is a complete nuclear medicine setup in Surat providing diagnostic (PET-CT scan / P.E.T. scan and gamma camera / SPECT scan) and therapeutic services for almost all parts of the body.
Click below on individual organs, their labels or procedures for more information. At the end of the figure, you will find a very brief introduction of nuclear medicine as a medical specialty. For a (lot) more elaborate explanation, please visit the resources page on this web site.
Super Sahyog Nuclear Imaging is a complete nuclear medicine setup with diagnostic and therapeutic applications for almost all parts of the body.
Click below on individual organs, their labels or procedures for more information. At the end of the figure, you will find a very brief introduction of nuclear medicine as a medical specialty. For a (lot) more elaborate explanation, please visit the resources page on this web site.
The following is a very brief overview of NM. A more elaborate explanation can be found on the resources page.
A radioactive drug is introduced into the patient's body. It reaches into various organs and is eliminated from the body over few hours to days. It also simultaneously undergoes radioactive decay. Each organ has a unique tendency to process (accumulate, retain and eliminate) a given drug, which differs from that of other organs ('biodistribution'). An abnormally functioning organ processes the administered drug differently, which results in altered biodistribution.
In diagnostic procedures, the chosen radioactive drug emits gamma photons (a kind of 'radiation') that penetrate through the body. Number of photons emitted by an organ is determined by how much of the drug was processed by it. Of these emitted photons, those penetrating through the body are 'counted' by an array of dedicated detectors ('scanner').
There is a wide variety of available drugs. Choice of drug for a procedure is determined by organs and biological processes we wish to understand.
Two major kinds of radioactive drugs exist — single photon emitters and positron emitters respectively used for gamma camera scans and positron emission tomography (PET).
PET drugs emit 2 photons simultaneously in opposite direction, hence, the detectors 'know' the line (direction) of origin of the photons more accurately compared to single photon emitters. Hence, we get 'sharper' images with PET than with gamma cameras.
When PET scan and CT scan (which detects X-rays produced by the scanner itself) are performed on the same scanner, we get the best possible idea of how organs are 'functioning' as well as how they 'appear'. Such a hybrid scan is known as 'PET-CT'.
FDG (a drug behaving similar to glucose) is used most commonly for PET-CT scans. PET-CT scans are most commonly used for gauging cancer's presence, its extent, response to treatment, and recurrence.
Gamma camera scans are most commonly used to assess the function of kidneys, thyroid, heart, parathyroid and bones. 'SPECT' is 3-dimensional acquisition of images on a gamma camera.
In therapeutic NM, the chosen radioactive drug emits radioactive particles (as against waves). These particles travel for very short distance (within a range of few millimetres), interact with the nearby molecules and make them unstable ('ionization'). Cells harbouring such ionized molecules are not able to divide, and eventually die. As the emitted radioactive particles can travel for only a very short distance, they typically do not penetrate through the body.
Therapeutic drugs are chosen such that they accumulate lot more avidly in the 'target' organ(s) compared to the other non-target organs thus minimizing damage to the latter.
Most common use of therapeutic NM is in destroying the thyroid (either in case of its overactivity or for completion of treatment of thyroid cancer). Other less common applications include treatment of prostate and neuroendocrine cancers.