Clinical Nuclear Medicine PDF

Preface

Clinical nuclear medicine continues to flourish as a result of the implementation of new techniques into the clinical evaluation of patients that impact on management and therapeutic decisions.

Since the previous edition, PET has become firmly established as a key clinical imaging modality and there is an emphasis on combined anatomical and functional imaging modality with PET/CT and SPECT/CT scannners as well as image registration techniques. These methods have become established in oncology, and cardiac, neurological and other applications are increasing. New SPECT and PET tracers continue to be developed to explore varied aspects of human physiology and biology and the discipline of targeted radionuclide therapy techniques continues to evolve and expand.

These new developments are of importance, not only for nuclear medicine, but also for a wide vareity of other disciplines, including the study of physiology and pathophysiology at a molecular level in both humans and animals. The ubiquity of these methods is a testament to the robustness of the radiotracer principle stimulating continuing advancement of radiotracers, techniques and instrumentation.

The text is structured in a similar manner to previous editions in an effort to describe relevant topics of current clinical importance rather than attempting to deal with all of the basic science. An initial section covers the broad principles and scope of important areas that are considered to impact more significantly on currrent and future clinical practice since the last edition. The second section covers the clinical systems where nuclear medicine influences clinical practice and a third section reviews a number of relevant technical topics.

In the drawning era of molecular medicine, establihsed and novel nuclear medicine techniques are firmly placed to ensure that this discipline remains at the heart of mainstream medical practice.