Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

‘Nuclear medicine plays vital role in early diagnosis, deciding treatment’

COIMBATORE: Nuclear medicine plays a significant role in the early diagnosis of diseases. It is wrong to associate nuclear medicine with only cancer, as it helps in diagnosing problems in the heart, brain, kidney, thyroid gland and also gastro-intestinal bleeds.

Isotopes are injected into patients and scanning using a gamma camera done to find out how much organs have been affected by diseases. This helps in deciding the exact mode of treatment that can be taken up to save the patients, Director of Sri Ramakrishnan Institute of Oncology and Research P. Guhan and Consultant and In-Charge of Department of Nuclear Medicine E. Venkatachalapathy told presspersons here on Thursday.

The doctors said that the gamma-emitting isotopes were caught on the camera to locate the problem areas in the organs.

For instance, it would help find out how much heart muscle had been damaged during an attack.

Explaining the functions of the Rs.2-crore new generation gamma camera bought by the institute, Dr. Venkatachalapathy said the U.S.-made equipment could scan the entire body, including a whole body bone scan.

The doctors allayed fears of effects of radioactive substances. Only a maximum permissible level of radioactive isotope was used for such therapeutic purposes.

Therefore, there was no risk for patients. It could be used even in newborns but not on pregnant women, they said.

“If there was any problem with the foetus, there will be a tendency to blame it on the isotopes. This can happen even if the baby comes out with a problem that is genetic,” said Dr. Guhan.

“That is why we even offer the option of abortion to women who may be in need of isotope-aided diagnosis,” he said.

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