Introduction to Nuclear Medicine

It begins with the scientific discoveries that led to modern nuclear imaging, including X-rays, radioactivity, atomic structure, radioactive tracers, cyclotrons, nuclear reactors, and the eventual development of gamma cameras, SPECT, and PET.</p><p dir="ltr">The presentation introduces the fundamentals of radioactive decay, half-life, radioactive decay processes, and radiation units, with particular attention to beta-minus decay, positron emission, and gamma emission.

It also explains commonly used radionuclides and their clinical applications, including iodine-131, technetium-99m, fluorine-18, gallium-68, and lutetium-177. Additional topics include radiation detection with Geiger-Müller counters and the design and function of radiopharmaceuticals.</p><p dir="ltr">The second half focuses on nuclear medicine imaging systems and their clinical use. It explains how gamma cameras detect radiopharmaceutical distributions, how SPECT reconstructs three-dimensional functional images from multiple projections, and how PET detects coincident 511-keV photons produced by positron-electron annihilation.