Nuclear medicine is the field of medicine that diagnoses and evaluates the anatomical or physiological condition of the body using the unique properties of radioactive and stable nuclides and treats them with open radioactive sources. It is divided into In-vivo examination using image analysis, In-vitro examination that measures and examines body fluids, and radioisotope therapy.

In-vivo examination

We perform various tests such as the endocrine system, skeletal system, digestive system, circulatory system, respiratory system, urinary system, and nervous system. Diagnosis can be made by imaging the gamma rays emitted from the radiopharmaceutical distributed in the body with a gamma camera immediately or for a certain time after injecting the drug according to the diagnostic purpose with a radioisotope and injecting it into the human body. Not only planar images but also tomographic images (SPECT) are available to get higher resolution images.
The introduction of positron emission tomography (PET-CT) is providing dramatic help in setting the initial staging of various malignant tumors. This is also used as an essential examination for re-stageing after surgery or chemotherapy. PET/CT can be used not only for malignant tumors, but also for the detection of epileptogenic lesions and the confirmation of surviving myocardium after myocardial infarction. Therefore, it is a field of nuclear medicine examination that will be further developed in the future.

Radioisotope Therapy

The energy generated from the radioisotope releases energy only in cells such as cancer and has very low permeability, so it is used for cancer treatment. As a representative example, radioactive iodine (Iodine-131) is used for the removal of residual thyroid after thyroid cancer surgery, treatment of metastatic thyroid cancer, and treatment of hyperthyroidism.