Nuclear Medicine and Radiation Protection

• An overview of Nuclear Medicine (NM) diagnostic procedures.
• These methods provide important clinical information to health care professionals.
• The care team should be able to adequately describe these methods to patients.
• Many benefits of NM techniques and the potential risks are described.

Nuclear medicine and molecular imaging procedures play an important role in the diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of many diseases. These include diseases of the heart, skeleton, brain, and kidneys as well as applications in oncology. The following article discusses various nuclear medicine diagnostic and therapeutic applications, and the technology behind them. Finally, radiation safety in the context of nuclear medicine will be discussed. It is important that all members of the nuclear medicine team are equipped to provide an appropriate discussion of the benefits and risks of nuclear medicine to our patients and their families.