About Nuclear Medicine Technologists

Nuclear medicine is a relatively new field in diagnostic imaging. Technologists administer radiopharmaceuticals to patients and then observe the body's reactions. The observations are recorded by a type of scanner that produces images of these results. Since it is somewhat new, technologist jobs are not particularly plentiful, but the field is continually growing. It is very possible that this will be one of the fastest-growing careers in medicine.

Function

• Technologists in nuclear medicine use radioactive materials called radiopharmaceuticals to diagnose and treat disorders. After administering radiopharmaceuticals to a patient, technologists monitor the reactions of the tissue or organs. The technologist records these observations with a scanner that produces tangible images of these results. This process determines whether a disease is present based on metabolic changes rather than the structural changes that typical imaging techniques like X-rays use. Two examples of such nuclear-medicine imaging are positron emission tomography (PET) scans and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scans.

Significance

• Nuclear medicine provides information about the structure and function of practically every organ system in the body, whereas typical diagnostic imaging provides information about only system structure. Such imaging is far more accurate in determining the presence of a variety of disorders than typical imaging, especially in the case of cancer.

Types

• There are a variety of scans performed from nuclear-medicine imaging, including:
  Bone scan - determines if any abnormalities are present in bones and joints
  Gallium scan - detects any tumors or infections throughout the body
  Gastric emptying - evaluates stomach function
  Gastroesophageal reflux study - determines esophageal reflux (material moves from stomach to esophagus)
  Hepatobiliary scan - evaluates gallbladder and bile-duct function
  Liver scan - evaluates liver and spleen function
  Meckel's scan - determines if a patient has Meckel's diverticulitis
  MUGA scan - evaluates heart function
  PET scan - evaluates blood flow, oxygenation and metabolism to determine organ function
  Renal scan - evaluates kidney function
  SPECT brain scan - evaluates brain function
  SPECT liver scan - evaluates liver function, primarily to detect tumors
  Thyroid scan and uptake - evaluates thyroid gland function
  White blood cell scan - determines presence of bone infections

Warning

• Nuclear-medicine technologists risk exposure to radiation, as with any career in radiology. The exposure is generally the same as one would receive with a typical X-ray, but technologists usually wear a badge that can detect the radiation levels for safety.

Potential

• Nuclear medicine is a fairly recent medical technology, so job positions are not as plentiful as in other areas of diagnostic imaging. However, with the continual development of new medical technologies, nuclear medicine is predicted to grow. Many fields of medicine, such as cardiology and neurology, are starting to use and rely on the nuclear-medicine images to study metabolic and biochemical function and characteristics that they were not able to examine before. With the use of nuclear-medicine expanding and the continual development of new technology for nuclear imaging, this career is possibly one of the fastest-growing fields in medicine.