Nuclear medicine is an emerging area of medicine that involves the use of radioactive isotopes and the application of nuclear technologies. It came into being with the advent of nuclear physics. It enables easier and more precise measurement and evaluation of the metabolic processes as well as the functioning of the different systems and organs of the body. It plays an important role in contemporary medicine for the early diagnosis and treatment of the most advanced diseases that endanger human life today, including cancer and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Nuclear medicine can be classified into two categories: clinical nuclear medicine and basic nuclear medicine, which is also referred to as experimental nuclear medicine.
Nuclear medicine, also known as atomic medicine, refers to the medical application of radioisotopes, accelerator-generated radiation beams, and the nuclear radiation produced by radioisotopes. In medicine, radioisotopes and nuclear radiation can be used for diagnosis, treatment, and medical research. In pharmacy, they can be used to study the mechanisms of drug action, determine drug activity, analyze drugs, and sterilize drugs through radiation.
Nuclear medicine is a discipline that continues to grow, employing nuclear technology for the diagnosis, treatment, and research of various diseases. It is the marriage of medicine with nuclear technology, electronics, computer technology, chemistry, physics, and biology. There are two major divisions of nuclear medicine: nuclear medicine clinics and basic, or experimental, nuclear medicine. The latter is more closely integrated with and encompasses various clinical disciplines. Some subdivisions pertain to specific systems or organs, such as cardiovascular, neurological, endocrine, pediatric, and therapeutic nuclear medicine. Since the 1970s, advancements in nuclear medicine imaging technologies like SPECT and PET, as well as the invention of new radiopharmaceutical imaging agents, have also greatly advanced the field.
Nuclear medicine imaging augments and complements the work of CT, MRI, and ultrasound as they enable the diagnosis and exploration of different diseases. For these reasons, the dynamic shifts within nuclear medicine imaging are some of the most aggressive in the realm of clinical imaging diagnostics.
Experimental nuclear medicine and clinical nuclear medicine are divided into two parts.
Experimental nuclear medicine uses nuclear technology to explore the nature of life phenomena and the laws of material change. It has been widely used in basic medical research. Its main contents include nuclear decay measurement, labeling, tracing, in vitro radioanalysis, activation analysis, and autoradiography. Clinical nuclear medicine is a clinical medical discipline that uses open radionuclides to diagnose and treat diseases. It consists of two parts: diagnosis and treatment. Diagnostic nuclear medicine includes in vivo diagnostic methods, which focus on organ imaging and functional testing, and in vitro diagnostic methods, which focus on in vitro radioanalysis. Therapeutic nuclear medicine uses nuclear radiation emitted by radionuclides to treat lesions with highly concentrated irradiation.