Nuclear Medicine is an advanced & specialized medical branch which uses “Radioactivity” for medicinal use. The department has both diagnostic and therapeutic services.

Diagnostic Services:

Nuclear Medicine imaging uses a very special medicine called “Radiopharmaceuticals” in trace amounts to look at the physiology of any disease. It is well known fact that disease starts at the cellular level, well before any changes are visible in the body sometimes starting as long as years ago. X-ray, CT scan etc can diagnose disease only when anatomical changes have started to occur in the organs, however, since nuclear medicine tracers the physiology of any organ, it diagnoses the disease much earlier hence treatment can be started before irreparable changes have occurred.

Diagnostic nuclear medicine is used for imaging and diagnose all organ specific diseases:

• Brain: Dementia (Alzheimer disease, FTD, Semantic dementia, DLBD, Posterior Cortical Atrophy), Movement disorders (Parkinson’s & Parkinson Plus syndromes – CBGD, PSP, MSA), Encephalitis, Epilepsy, Brain Space-occupying lesions, Orbital Apex/cavernous Sinus syndrome etc
• Heart: Stress scan for ischemia, Heart viability, Inflammatory condition like Sarcoidosis, Myocarditis, Amyloidosis of Heart
• Lungs: Ventilation/Perfusion Scan, Functional reserve before lung transplant, Shunt Quantification, Solitary Pulmonary Nodule (SPN) evaluation, Malignancy – staging, restaging, treatment response & follow-up.
• Parathyroid: Hyperparathyroidism (Primary, Secondary & tertiary), Parathyroid Carcinoma, Brown tumors
• Hepatobiliary: Liver SOL evaluation, Duodenogastric reflux, GB Ejection Fraction, Functional reserve for donor before transplant, Cholecystitis & Post cholecystectomy Syndrome, Bile leak, Malignancy – staging, restaging, treatment response & follow-up etc
• Kidneys: Function & Clearance of kidneys evaluation by DTPA/LLEC, GFR estimation, Renovascular hypertension evaluation, Transplant kidney evaluation, Scar evaluation by DMSA, Malignancy – staging, restaging, treatment response & follow-up.
• Gastrointestinal tract: Gastric & Colonic transit time evaluation, Duodenogastric reflux, GI Bleed evaluation, Meckel’s Diverticulum, Malignancy – staging, restaging, treatment response & follow-up
• Skeletal System: Arthritis evaluation, Prosthesis evaluation, Metabolic Bone disease, Bony lesion like Osteoid Osteoma, Metastatic disease evaluation etc.
• Lymphatic: Leg/Hand edema, Chyluria, Chylothorax, Sentinel node estimation etc
• Malignancy: F-18 FDG PET-CT scan for all malignancies, Ga-68 DOTATATE scan for Neuroendocrine tumors, Ga-68 PSMA scan for Prostatic malignancy, Ga-68 Exendine scan for insulinoma, Ga-68 FAPI scan, Ga-68 Pentixafor CXCR4 scan etc.
• Miscellaneous: Dacryoscintigaphy for lacrimal glands, Salivary scintigraphy for salivary glands, Scrotal scintigraphy for torsion of testes, myositis evaluation, FDOPA scan for Brain SOL

Therapeutic Services:

The therapies in Nuclear medicine is a relatively new, but emerging branch with new treatments being added every day. The established Radionuclide treatments include

• Radioactive iodine (I-131) therapy for thyroid cancer and Graves disease,
• Samarium -153/ Lutetium -177 EDTMP for unbearable bone pain in cancer patients,
• P-32/ Lutetium -177/Y-90 radiosynovectomy for various painful joints,
• I-131 MIBG therapy for extensive pheochromocytoma/neuroblastoma,
• Lutetium -177 based therapy for Neuroendocrine tumors, Prostate malignancy and other malignancies
• Alpha Therapy – Actinium -225 based PSMA therapy.
• Yttrium-90 Microsphere / Therasphere therapy / I-131 lipidol for advanced hepatic metastases.