Medical Imaging and Nuclear Medicine
Miami Valley Hospital (MVH) Medical Imaging extensively combines imaging with nuclear medicine as a powerful diagnostic tool. This combination is most helpful in the fields of oncology and cardiology. Nuclear medicine uses radiopharmaceuticals, which highlight organs or other affected parts of your body on scans. Nuclear medicine techniques are powerful tools that can reveal how your organs and body parts are functioning—for example, to check your thyroid, digestive process, or blood flow.
Nuclear Medicine Scans
Forty percent of nuclear medicine procedures are used for cardiology to check your arteries for blood flow to your heart muscle. This is provided in conjunction with a stress test. Nuclear medicine is also used in:
- Bone scans to check for stress fractures, arthritis, and metastatic cancer
- Gall bladder and billiary studies for gall bladder function
- Ventilation and profusion lung scans for pulmonary emboli
- Renal scans for kidney function and hypertensive kidneys
Other Scans
MVH Medical Imaging also provides PET Scans with nuclear medicine. SPECT CT (Single Photon Emission Computerized Tomography) is utilized as well. This is a 3-dimensional imaging similar to PET, but can be easier on a patient's system.