Radiology & X-Ray Services 515.574.6528

Diagnosing Medical Conditions

Nuclear Medicine is a part of Radiology that uses very small amounts of radioactive material to image body parts – to look for heart disease, many types of cancers, and other abnormalities.

Nuclear Medicine procedures help diagnose many medical conditions. These procedures use radioactive materials called radiopharmaceuticals or radiotracers that are injected in a vein, swallowed, or inhaled depending upon what procedure or body part is being examined.  Usually 2 – 3 hours later you are put in a device called a gamma scanner that detects the radiation you were given and puts it in a computer screen to measure the amount of radiotracer absorbed by your body. This produces special pictures offers details on both structure and function of organs and tissues.

Non-imaging scans are used for:

• Kidney function

• Heart blood flow

• Lung scan for respiratory and blood flow problems

• Inflammation of the gallbladder

• Evaluate bones for infection, inflammation, cancer and arthritis

• Identify bleeding into the bowel

• Locate presence of infections

• Measure thyroid function

• Localize lymph nodes before surgery in patients with breast cancer or melanoma