Caring for the older patient, Part IV: The value of nuclear medicine in meeting the needs of an aging society.

: This is the last article of a four-part series on gerontology and its applications to the care of elderly patients in nuclear medicine. This article reviews selected nuclear medicine procedures that are more commonly performed on older patients. On completion of this article, the reader should be able to: (a) identify nuclear medicine procedures commonly performed on older patients; (b) give examples of how normal age-related anatomic and physiologic changes may affect various nuclear medicine procedures and findings; and (c) identify new or developing nuclear medicine techniques that may have future applications in the elderly population.