CRC Press Radiation Safety in Nuclear Medicine

Recent advances in the field of nuclear medicine (NM) are expanding the role and responsibilities of the nuclear medicine technologist (NMT) to include more complex and detailed tasks. New technologies are making the diagnosis, management, and treatment of illnesses more sensitive, more specific, more accurate, and ultimately safer for both the patient and the technologist. Radiation Safety in Nuclear Medicine, Second Edition provides the latest technological advances and expanded responsibilities of today’s NMT while laying a solid foundation for understanding the basic physics behind the technology. As with the original, this edition teaches the units of radioactivity, exposure, and dosimetry, along with the principles of instrumentation needed for detection and measurement. Focusing on the issues of safety, this volume devotes considerable attention to the science and practice of safety techniques and includes information on rules and regulations. In keeping with the expanding nature of the field, the second edition incorporates many updates and additions such as, Recent modifications to the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations specific to the use of radiopharmaceuticals in medicine The growing popularity of metabolic imaging with positron emissions tomography (PET) The benefits of merging two modalities, namely, the images of PET and computerized tomography (CT) into one short scanning procedure The new role of therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals that use molecular targeting as a method of localization Providing a basic understanding of nuclear medicine, its scientific basis, diagnostic and therapeutic applications, safety practices and regulations, and future directions, Radiation Safety in Nuclear Medicine, Second Edition is the comprehensive reference for technologists, students, researchers, and other professionals in the Nuclear Medicine.