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Nuclear Medicine
Diagnostic and Therapeutic Nuclear Medicine at UAMS Nuclear medicine provides both diagnostic and therapeutic services. While traditional imaging procedures typically produce images that are largely based on anatomy (i.e. x-rays of the chest, CT scans, ultrasounds, MRIs, etc.), nuclear medicine procedures typically involve imaging based on physiology derived from administration of a small amount of radioactivity, that is then measured or imaged as it is distributed thoughout the body, or therapy from an "unsealed source" of radioactivity injected or ingested into the body (as opposed to radiotherapy, which uses external sources of radiation or "sealed sources" such as radioactive seeds placed within the patient's body). Thus, while most of medical imaging is anatomically-based, nuclear medicine is physiologically-based. The use of radioactivity in nuclear medicine is based on the "tracer" principle - imaging equipment in nuclear medicine is so sensitive that the amount of administered radioactivity has no known physiologic or pharmacologic side effects. In addition to making single images, nuclear medicine techniques, especially when combined with modern digital computers, allow dynamic imaging and quantitative measurements of physiologic processes in "real time." Thus, a professional in a modern nuclear medicine department will routinely image left ventricular ejection fraction, cardiac chamber size, differential renal functions, and gastric emptying rate, etc., in addition to performing "static" imaging such as with bone scans, thyroid scans, etc. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging combined with CT scanning leads to a new, breakthrough instrument in nuclear medicine, the PET-CT scanner. This allows the fusion of physiology (PET) with anatomy (CT) into a single "form and function" image, a very powerful modality that is revolutionizing medical imaging, especially in oncology. UAMS has a very busy PET and PET/CT service, typically performing 20 or more scans daily. Therapy is an important part of modern nuclear medicine. While treatment for hyperthyroid conditions (such as Graves' disease) or thyroid cancer with I-131 has been a mainstay of nuclear medicine practice for over 60 years, other forms of treatment performed in nuclear medicine include radioisotope treatment for polycythemia vera (P-32), painful bone metastases (P-32, Sr-89, Sm-153, etc.), or, recently, I-131-labeled monoclonal antibody treatment for non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. At UAMS, a medical cyclotron produces research PET isotopes, some with ultra-short half-lives (i.e. 2 minutes). These can be used in clincal protocols or in support of small animal research with the UAMS state-of-the-art microPET small animal PET scanner.
Resident Experience Radiology residents receive four months of nuclear medicine training. If a nuclear medicine resident is a radiologist, they must have one additional year of full time nuclear medicine to be “board-eligible” in nuclear medicine, and two years if they are not a radiologist.
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