Nuclear Medicine

Unlike an x-ray procedure, where an image is obtained by an x-ray beam (generated by a machine) that passes through the body, a nuclear medicine image occurs when the radioactive decay occurring within the body is detected and recorded externally. Nuclear medicine images are most often obtained by a machine called a scintillation camera or gamma camera, invented in 1958 by the American physicist Hal Anger. The images or pictures are often called scans, which is a word left over from the time when nuclear medicine images were obtained by scintillating detector machines called rectilinear scanners. A scintillation or gamma camera is made of many components. This machine is capable of detecting radiation and converting the detected events into electrical impulses. Most gamma cameras are equipped with computers to process the information collected, to store the information, and produce an image of the organ of interest. The resulting picture is usually seen as a twodimensional image on a black and white or color television monitor. Some common nuclear medicine imaging procedures include lung, thyroid, liver, spleen, biliary system, heart, kidney, brain, and bone scans.