Radionuclide therapy, which until 15 years ago included only a few approved therapies, is gaining importance in the treatment of various malignancies. The future of oncology will not be limited to surgery, chemo-, antibody therapies or external radiation; it will include targeted therapy with radionuclides, which will become the standard of care for a variety of malignant diseases in combinatio...

A scanning collimated line source for simultaneously acquiring emission and transmission data from a gamma camera has been developed. The line source is microprocessor-controlled and incorporates hardware to electronically window the spatial gamma camera signals in order to separate the emission signals of the subject from transmission signals from the line source. The device improves upon the ...

Nuclear imaging of the thyroid and parathyroid glands has evolved from early radionuclide rectilinear thyroid scanning to the recently developed dual isotope subtraction technique for detecting parathyroid lesions. At the same time, x-ray fluorescent scanning, ultrasound, x-ray computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging have improved identification of these endocrine organs. The approp...

Brain death results when irreversible intracranial circulatory arrest, involving both the internal carotid and intracranial vertebral basilar systems, occurs despite preservation of extracranial circulation . To document the absence of intracranial blood flow and establish the irreversibility of the condition, intraarterial cerebral angiography and radionuclide cerebral angiography have become ...

Tantalum-178 is a short-lived radionuclide (Tm = 9.3 min.) and emits primarily 56to 64-keV characteristic x-rays. We have determined the imaging characteristics with this radionuclide and a large-field-of-view Anger camera. With a pinhole collimator, good spatial resolution is possible with Ta-178, although the image quality is superior with Tc-99m under comparable conditions. Spatial resolutio...

Molecular imaging (MI) comprises non-invasive monitoring of functional and spatiotemporal processes at molecular and cellular levels in humans and other living systems. In contrast to conventional diagnostic imaging, MI seeks to probe the molecular abnormalities that are the basis of disease rather than capture the images of the end effects of the molecular alterations. Imaging techniques such ...

The acronym THERANOSTICS epitomizes the inseparability of diagnosis and therapy, the pillars of medicine and takes into account personalized management of disease for a specific patient. Molecular phenotypes of neoplasms can be determined by molecular imaging with specific probes using positron emission tomography (PET), single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), magnetic resonance ima...

Coronary artery disease is the major cause of heart failure in North America. Viability assessment is important as it aims to identify patients who stand to benefit from coronary revascularization. Radionuclide modalities currently used in the assessment of viability include (201)Tl SPECT, (99m)Tc-based SPECT imaging, and (18)F-fluorodexoyglucose ((18)F-FDG)-PET imaging. Different advances have...

Limitations of Radionuclide Flow Studies in Bilateral Carotid Thrombosis • Radionuclide angiography as a noninvasive procedure has become an important tool in the evaluation of cerebrovascular diseases. Determinations of arm-to-brain circulation times complemented by the transit times of the radionuclide bolus through the brain afford insight into the functional status of the vascular system of...