3.7 NUCLEAR MEDICINE IMAGING

3.7.1 Principles of Nuclear Medicine Scanning

The nuclear imaging (NM) technique can be used to generate both 2-D and 3-D images. In 2-D imaging, it produces a projection image. In 3-D imaging, the combined nuclear imaging and tomography techniques can generate an emission CT (ECT). This section will discuss 2-D NM imaging, an ECT will be presented in Chapter 4. The formation of a NM image is by administering a radiopharmaceutical agent that can be used to differentiate between a normal and an abnormal physiological process. A radiopharmaceutical agent consists of a tracer substance and a radionuclide for highlighting the tracer’s position. The tracer typically consists of a molecule that resembles a constituent of the tissue of interest, a colloidal substance that is taken up by reti....