Introduction to Nuclear Medicine

A collection of vocabulary flashcards covering basic principles, imaging modalities, historical timeline, diagnostic and therapeutic applications, and radiopharmaceuticals in nuclear medicine.

Nuclear Medicine

A medical specialty that uses unsealed radioactive sources, usually liquid radioactive tracers or radiopharmaceuticals, for diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

Radiopharmaceuticals

Agents composed of carrier molecules bonded to a gamma-ray-emitting or positron-emitting radionuclide, administered to patients by intravenous injection or oral ingestion.

Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT)

A 3D tomographic nuclear medicine imaging technique utilizing radionuclides that decay by gamma-ray emission to produce cross-sectional images from projection images at multiple angles.

Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

A 3D tomographic imaging system utilizing radionuclides that decay by positron emission to track metabolic and cellular activity.

Annihilation Event

The process in PET imaging where an emitted positron encounters an electron, destroying both and producing two high-energy photons emitted simultaneously in opposite directions.

Planar Images

Two-dimensional images showing radionuclide distribution in the body captured at a specific angle.

Theranostics

An advanced practice in nuclear medicine that integrates targeted diagnostic imaging with radionuclide therapy for personalized healthcare.

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen

A German physicist who discovered X-rays in 1895.

Antoine Henri Becquerel

A French physicist who discovered natural radioactivity in 1896.

Pierre Curie and Marie Curie

Physicists who discovered Polonium and Radium in 1898.

George Charles de Hevesy

A Hungarian radiochemist known as the Father of Nuclear Medicine, who studied tracer absorption using radioactive lead nitrate in plants between 1913 and 1923.

Hermann Blumgart and Soma Weiss

American physicians who first applied radioactive tracers in vivo to study human circulating blood in 1927.

Ernest Lawrence

An American accelerator physicist who invented the cyclotron in 1930.

Benedict Cassen

A German physicist who developed the first motorized gamma detector, known as the rectilinear scanner, in 1951.

Hal Oscar Anger

An American electrical engineer and biophysicist who invented the Anger Camera (Gamma Camera) in 1958.

$$^{18}\text{F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)}$$

A PET radiopharmaceutical used to assess glucose metabolism, where higher rates of tracer utilization indicate increased cellular activity and cancer aggressiveness.

$$^{99m}\text{Tc-MDP}$$

A radiopharmaceutical used in planar imaging to assess bone metabolism and differentiate conditions such as metastatic cancer, osteomyelitis, and cellulitis.

$$^{99m}\text{Tc-sestamibi (Cardiolite)}$$

A radiopharmaceutical used in SPECT or planar imaging to evaluate myocardial perfusion in coronary artery disease.

$$^{99m}\text{Tc-MAG3}$$

A radiopharmaceutical used in planar imaging to assess renal function and evaluate kidney disease.

$$^{99m}\text{Tc-HMPAO (Ceretec)}$$

A radiopharmaceutical used in SPECT imaging to measure cerebral blood flow in neurologic disorders.

$$^{131}\text{I-sodium iodide}$$

A radiopharmaceutical used in planar imaging for thyroid cancer diagnosis and therapeutically for treating hyperthyroidism and thyroid cancer.

$$^{111}\text{In-labeled white blood cells}$$

A radiopharmaceutical used in planar imaging to localize sites of infection and detect inflammation.

$$^{82}\text{Rb-rubidium chloride}$$

A PET radiopharmaceutical used for evaluating myocardial perfusion in coronary artery disease.

Lutetium-177-dotatate Therapy

A targeted peptide receptor radioligand therapy (PRRT) used to treat gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors and neuroendocrine tumors of the prostate gland.

Radium-223 Therapy

A therapeutic application of nuclear medicine used for pain relief in metastatic prostate cancer affecting bones.

DOST-PNRI Nuclear Medicine Research and Innovation Centre

The first government facility in the Philippines housing a medical cyclotron and PET/CT scanners in one integrated setting.