Nuclear medicine is a type of imaging that uses radioactive materials (called tracers) to identify and diagnose diseases and abnormalities within the body. The tracers are either injected into the bloodstream, inhaled, or swallowed. A specially designed gamma ray camera is then able to follow the tracers and produce images of specific body parts. This medical subspecialty is able to provide insights that other imaging procedures are unable to produce, and it is usually less expensive and more precise than exploratory surgery.
