The Nuclear Medicine department is hidden away at the end of the main building on the lower ground floor, with the Endiscope Unit on the first floor.
Nuclear medicine allows radioactive markers to be administered to the patients and then tracked as they pass around the body, thus identifying abnormalities in the patient.Planning radiotherapy requires very specialised skills, pin-pointing exactly where radiation will be administered and ensuring that the patient is in precisely the same position each time they are treated .
Nuclear Medicine uses the application of radioactive materials to aid the diagnosis and for treatment of patients. Different radioactive isotope/chemical combinations are used depending on the part of the body under investigation or being treated. These decay naturally, emitting gamma (g) and beta (b) radiation.
Depending on the examination required, tests can just involve a series of simple blood tests, a collection of urine samples or being scanned. But all examinations involve the administration of a radioactive material either as a small injection or in a capsule form.All the scans are performed on a dedicated Gamma camera, which detects the radioactivity within the body and creates a computer image of the area of interest. The scans produced are usually viewed in conjunction with images from other modalities, such as, MRI, CT, Ultrasound and X-rays. These other imaging techniques demonstrate anatomy (what the skeleton or organ looks like), whereas the nuclear medicine scans demonstrate the physiology or metabolic activity (i.e. how the organ is working).As well as diagnostic tests the department also uses different radioactive isotopes for different kinds of therapeutic effects, the therapies vary from treating a hyperactive thyroid to alleviating bone pain for bone metastases.The nuclear medicine department at Mount Vernon Hospital consists of a multidisciplinary specialised team that includes 3 senior radiographers, 1 technologist, 4 physicists and 2 administrative staff.
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