RESTON, Va. Say the word nuclear and it conjures up mistaken ideas about radiation, an invisible, odorless and intangible force that allows doctors to non-invasively see into the body. Say the words nuclear medicine, and its powerful reality is that it is highly beneficial to life, said Jonathan M. Links, former SNM president, who has written an overview on understanding radiological and nuclear terrorism in the October issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

When people hear the words radiation and radioactivity, they initially think negative thoughts, said Links, professor and director of the Center for Public Health Preparedness at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Md. The publics perception of the risks of radiation is that radiation is highly risky. Its best to get the scientific facts. In reality, radiationa release of energyallows doctors to effectively diagnose and treat disease, noted Baltimores radiation terror expert and co-author of Understanding Radiological and Nuclear Terrorism as Public Health Threats: Preparedness and Response Perspectives.

The use of nuclear medicinegiving tiny amounts of radioactive materials to patients to examine molecular processes in the body to diagnose and treat a variety of diseasescontinues to grow and evolve. Every major hospital in this country has a nuclear medicine department. Last year, 19.7 million nuclear medicine procedures were performed on 17.2 million women, men and children in more than 7,200 medical sites in the United Statesa 15 percent increase from four years ago. Every day, about 55,000 women, men and children undergo nuclear medicine (also called molecular imaging) procedures to evaluate heart disease, detect cancer and determine response to treatment, diagnose and evaluate brain disorders and locate stress fractures.


When it comes to nuclear medicine, Links says the public should keep in mind these facts.

* Nuclear medicine/molecular imaging procedures are an invaluable way to gather medical information that would otherwise be unavailable, require surgery or necessitate more expensive diagnostic tests.
* The radiation dose to the body a patient may receive from a diagnostic nuclear medicine study is typically equal to or less than the natural background radiation dose a person may receive every year from rocks, soil, space (air travel), building materials and radon.
* In use for more than 60 years, nuclear medicine is an established medical specialty that is older than CT, MRI and ultrasound imaging. As nuclear medicine techniques merge with new technologies, hybrid imaging and advances in molecular biology, a new era in molecular imaging will add to the understanding of the molecular basis of disease. Molecular imaging will provide a way to integrate information about location, structure, function and biology, leading to a new package of noninvasive imaging tools that could have vast potential for improving patient care.

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