In today's medical field there are many types of tests to perform on a patient. Yet, the new high rise in the medical field-testing is the use of Nuclear Medicine. Nuclear medicine is a form of radiology, yet differs from standard radiology in a number of essential ways. In standard radiology, a source of x-rays is placed outside the patient and as the x-rays penetrate the patient, an image is created. In nuclear medicine imaging, a small amount of radioactive material is administered to the patient either by mouth or by vein and certain rays are emitted called gamma rays. These rays are then measured by a gamma camera and the data is stored in a computer. The data in the computer is then able to produce an image, which will be read by a nuclear medicine technologist and discussed with the patient by a physician. The radioactive material is in the form of a radiopharmaceutical, which knows to travel to a specific organ of interest. There are a number of tests, which are often called scans, to perform in nuclear medicine depending on the organ which you are intended to look upon. .
A particular scan that caught my interest is the gallbladder scan, or commonly known as the Hepatobiliary Scan, (HIDA Scan). A few years back I suffered from sever abdominal pain for numerous years, and all sorts of test had been performed in order to try to discover the source of my pain. After several weeks in the hospital and several physician visits a nuclear medicine scan was performed to discover that my gallbladder was the source of my pain. The results of this scan indicated that my gallbladder was no longer functioning. Once discovering where my pain was coming from my physician thought it would be best to remove the organ. After the surgery was performed I notice an immense amount of relief from my pain, and from then on I have wanted to know more about this wonderful test that was performed to finally eliminate the pain.
The gallbladder is an organ that is located in the upper right quadrant in your stomach. Similar to the appendix, you can live without the gallbladder, so if one encounters a problem with gallstones, surgery is required, so that you have the ability to live a pain free life. About 90 percent of gall...