Talk:Nuclear medicine
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[edit] Vandalism
Given some of the talk on this page, it seems that this article has been subjected to some vandalism, apparently due to misguided concerns about nuclear energy, nuclear weapons, etc. Maybe the article could be resticted to editing, or maybe even the title could be changed somehow to avoid attacks of this kind.
-David 64.73.227.163 03:45, 7 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Gamma-camera
Hi All,
I'm of the opinion that the entire following section should be moved to "Gamma-camera", as this seems to be a specific topic within a broad-titled article. There is already a link within the article for further explanation of a gamma-camera if the reader is interested and wants to explore further.
I'd originally written this to be a layperson's article, without wishing to delve too deeply into instrumentation, nuclear physics, physiology, etc. under this title.
Opinions? Comments? If I don't hear any objections, I'll move that slab to gamma-camera.
- Adam
Proposing to move this:
Traditionally, gamma-cameras have consisted of a gamma-ray detector, such as a single large sodium iodide scintilation crystal, coupled with an imaging sub-system such as an array of photo-multiplier tubes and associated electronics. Solid-state gamma-ray detectors are available, but are not yet commonplace. Currently, a company called Digirad (http://www.digirad.com) ® is the primary producer of the Solid-state gamma camera. Gamma-cameras employ lead collimators to form an image of the radionuclide distribution in the body on the gamma-ray detector.
Gamma-camera performance is usually a balance of spatial resolution against sensativity. A typical gamma-camera will have a resolution of 4 to 6 mm and will be able to capture several hundred thousand gamma-ray 'events' per second. The gamma-camera will detect the X an Y position of each gamma-ray event, and these coordinates will be used to build an image, as shown above. In nuclear medicine, the value of an image pixel is the integral of gamma-ray events in that pixel position over time. In non-tomographic images, the pixel can also be thought of as the line integral of radionuclide distribution of a perpendicular line extending from the pixel position through the body of the patient. The units of a raw nuclear medicine image is 'counts' or 'kilocounts', refering to the number of gamma-ray events detected.
Since each nuclear medicine radionuclide has a unique gamma-ray emission energy spectrum, and since the energy of a gamma-ray is detected in a gamma-camera by the brightness of the scintilation associated with an event, gamma-cameras employ energy 'windows' to gate or limit the imaging process to gamma-ray events of particular energies. An energy window is usually tailored to the peak of the energy spectrum of a particular radionuclide, and to ignore other gamma-rays that would otherwise contribute noise to the image. This allows noise caused by compton scattering to be gated out.
- Disagree; a brief mention of the principles of a gamma camera belong here. JFW | T@lk 13:43, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC)
[edit] Details
This article is now very general, and does not actually mention any common scans (V/Q scintigraphy, bone scan, thyroid studies, SestaMIBI scans). I do not have access to a nice list. Does anyone else? JFW | T@lk 13:43, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC)
[edit] Nuclear medicine / nuclear imaging
What entails nuclear medicine? Is radiation therapy part of it? Or it is mostly only nuclear imaging? fnielsen 08:13, 13 May 2005 (UTC)
Nuclear medicine encompasses diagnostic tests and therapeutic examinations. A large proportion of the diagnostic work involves imaging, and a smaller proportion (depending on the nuclear medicine department) involves non-imaging (e.g. the assay of blood samples to measure the glomerular filtration rate of the kidneys). Therapies with unsealed sources are also performed and are part of the field of nuclear medicine. --AjAldous 14:42, 13 May 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Nuclear Reactors
A point was brought up in nuclear power - there's no discussion of the source of the specific radioisotopes mentioned in this article. Simesa 01:44, 19 August 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Image
Hello I come from the french Wikipédia, I just warn you i upload a image. Enjoy!
[edit] I think this article needs a re-organisation...
1st line reference to exclusively "unsealed" sources is too specific since diagnostic imaging seems to be also included in this article - methods of which use sealed sources... ...and highlights the general confusion in this article which does not make a clear disctinction between imaging methods (i.e. where is PET?), diagnostic methods, and therapies; or between the various subdisciples of each.
Thoughts? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by WikiJon (talk • contribs).
- Thoughts include:
- Please post new comments at the end
- Please sign posts with four tildes.
- Excellent link, I have just added it to the article.
- "Be bold" as they say; you have good suggestions, go ahead and make changes to the article. --GangofOne 20:04, 13 April 2006 (UTC)
- I agree that this article needs quite a bit of tidying up and expansion. Regarding WikiJon's comments, the field of nuclear medicine is that which uses unsealed radioactive sources for diagnosis and therapy, so I think that the first line is accurate. However, unsealed sources do play a part, e.g. external gamma sources for attenuation correction in SPECT
- One could argue that PET is a branch of Nuclear Medicine since it uses unsealed positron emitting radioactive substances, so it ought to be mentioned in this article.
- Diagnostic imaging is the major area of nuclear medicine - using gamma cameras and PET scanners to acquire images.
- A complicating factor is the increasing emergence of multimodality scanners such as SPECT/CT and PET/CT machines. As in other medical disciplines there is increasingly more crossover between different fields.
- I hope these comments are useful and I also hope to make some constructive contributions to this article in due course (life's busy!). Fizzy 12:17, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
Hi. I am doing research for my eighth grade class and I was wondering how much you people make. Thank you so much! - Katie—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 216.77.166.180 (talk • contribs) .
- Katie, that depends which country you're in, and how long you've be in the game. Between $30k and $70k in Australia. In the UK and USA, pay rates are much higher.Professornuke 06:22, 23 August 2006 (UTC) Professornuke.
[edit] lol
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha this is stupid--70.61.165.2 14:26, 10 July 2006 (UTC)Palmer Hunt--70.61.165.2 14:26, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Biased
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This article has been nominated to be checked for its neutrality. Discussion of this nomination can be found on the talk page. |
It is completely biased in favour of nuclear energy
- Could you point out what in specific is biased in favour of nuclear energy? This article deals with nuclear medicine. --Drahreg01 16:09, 14 August 2006 (UTC)
- Agreed, this article is a purely factual description of a medical imaging modality that is in widespread use and available in most major hospitals. It has nothing to do with the nuclear power industry. College Lecturer, 25 August 2006.
- Actually, the complainer used the term "Nuclear energy" and not "Nuclear power industry"--which leads one to think that this person (as, indeed, much of the general public) does not understand the difference between a)Nuclear energy as a source of electricity, b)Nuclear energy as a source of weapons, and c)Nuclear reactor by-product as a source of medical materiel. This article would do well to enumerate the amount of Nuc. Med. studies done worldwide annually. Maybe a section called Benefits to Mankind (Or something less hokey like "Patient Benefits") could briefly explain how Nuc. Med. helps save countless lives through millions of patient studies each year. This could be done without displaying a bias toward other uses of nuclear energy. Rob Teasley, RT(N) 16 Nov. 2006 (P.S. I agree this is an unbiased, factual article. The complainer is probably one of those people who think everything with the word "nuclear" in it is evil.)
[edit] A Personal History of Nuclear Medicine
"A Personal History of Nuclear Medicine" might be a good reference source for making improvements to this article. - Nick
