Nuclear Medicine Reveals The Inner Workings Of The Body

Nuclear medicine has the potential to improve the diagnosis and treatment of a range of diseases.

Dr Dineo Mpanya, a nuclear medicine specialist at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital who specialises in medical imaging, explained that this medical specialty makes it possible to diagnose illnesses that may not be picked up by normal X-ray or CT scans.

By providing unique information about the human body and its function, nuclear medicine helps doctors diagnose diseases earlier to make treatment more effective. Nuclear medicine uses small amounts of radioactive substances to image the body and treat disease. Patients consume or are injected with a radiopharmaceutical (tracer) which emits gamma radiation. The tracer enters the organ being examined and gives off energy in the form of gamma rays which are detected by a gamma camera. The gamma camera then sends a signal to a computer, eventually creating images and videos showing how an organ functions.

Dr Mpanya said with this type of imaging technique, they can see and determine the extent of disease in the heart, lungs, kidneys, bones or any organ in the body, with the exception of the reproductive organs.

“We are able to help diagnose and evaluate medical conditions,” she explained.

“For instance, if someone complains of chest pains and the treating doctor is concerned that there might be a blood clot in one of the blood vessels in the heart and lungs, that person will be referred to us for a lung (ventilation-perfusion) scan or a heart scan, which assesses blood flow in the vessels surrounding the heart.

How nuclear scans work