Nuclear Medicine and Diseases of the Chest

Nuclear medicine encompasses the diagnostic use of unsealed sources of radiation in patient care, and is largely a diagnostic specialty. A variety of methods exist to assist in the diagnosis and management of patients with chest disease. Already the application of pulmonary perfusion scintigraphy makes a major contribution to the diagnosis of pulmonary thromboembolism in the face of the often unhelpful chest radiograph, or if pulmonary angiography is contraindicated or unavailable. The rationale, applications and limitations of appropriate radionuclide methodologies such as pulmonary perfusion and ventilation scintigraphy, angiography, bone and tumor scintigraphy and radioimmunoassay are described.