Nuclear Medicine Diagnostics

Registration by telephone:

The examination rooms of the nuclear medical hospital at the City Center and Grosshadern sites are equipped with devices by Philips, General Electrics and Siemens. The whole range of nuclear medicine diagnostics is offered on a total of 17 camera systems (amongst them two 3-headed and several 2-headed gamma cameras, three PET/CT devices, which are operated together with the colleagues from department of radiology.

Whilst the department at Grosshadern is centered on one site, there are two more examination sites in the City Center in addition to the main site, namely at the

• Medical policlinic, and
• Dr. von Haunerschen children’s hospital, where specifically designed children examination rooms are available. Here, childrens's diagnostics is done using a double-headed SPECT camera (PRISM 2000XP, by Philips), corresponding to comparable centers at London, Paris, Chicago, Washington, Los Angeles and Toronto.

Nuclear medicine covers the medical application of radioactive pharmaceuticals for diagnostics, therapy and science. Our department offers the whole range of modern nuclear-medical examinations and treatment options, including pediatric nuclear medicine. We are the largest facility of this kind in Germany.

Technology:

The diagnostic camera systems used in nuclear medicine are generally characterized by a highly open design, so that the examinations are tolerated well without an „oppressive feeling“. Today, hybrid imaging modalities such as SPECT/CT or PET/CT are generally used and combine the respective advantages and results of various imaging methods for patients's benefit. The high anatomic resolution of computer tomography (CT) is combined with specific information of nuclear medicine (scintigraphy, SPECT, PET). Ambitious technology and excerpt knowledge in nuclear medicine can significantly optimize diagnostics and therapy of diseases. However, lacking knowledge on radioactive radiation and their application in medicine often causes fears in patients. However, patients mostly do not feel more of the examination than the puncture to their vein, comparable to blood withdrawal. The radiation exposition is generelly low, due to the extremely low amount of radioactive substances used since they disintegrate quickly and are also quickly eliminated.

Diagnostics and therapy:

Clinical nuclear medicine offers a variety of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, particularly in oncology (e.g. malignant tumors, sentinel lymph node scintigraphy, pain reducing radionuclide therapy in bone metastasis), in neurology (e. g. brain related diseases, Parkinson, Alzheimer) and cardiology (e. g. cardiovascular disease, infarction).

In oncology, the method has various accepted fields of use: Primary tumor diagnostics (tumor search when localization of primary tumor is unknown), differential diagnostics between benign and malignant tumors), general diagnostics (staging for possible lymphnode and distant metastases), therapy planning, therapy monitoring (assessment of therapy response), and tumor follow-up, e.g. in case of rising tumor markers. For all these questions, PET/CT enables early information which are important for therapy planning and may change the patient management in many cases.