Nuclear Medicine

WELCOME to your elective in Nuclear Medicine!

Introduction

This rotation is designed to give you an overview of one of the most exciting of the imaging subspecialties. Nuclear Medicine encompasses several distinct areas of further subdivision and during your week-long rotation you will get a brief taste of the breadth of this field. Over the course of the week you will participate in the daily clinical activities. We hope you will gain basic skills that will allow you to understand Nuclear Medicine’s place in the diagnostic armamentarium and work-up of patients and will provide you with a brief exposure to its therapeutic role.

Goals

  1. To learn the scope of the practice of Nuclear Medicine, diagnostic and therapeutic.
  2. To learn the general principles of the medical application of radiopharmaceuticals.

Objectives

  1. To learn the role Nuclear Medicine plays in the diagnostic work up of common clinical scenarios e.g. chest pain, fever work-up, assessing for osteomyelitis.
  2. To learn how some commonly used Nuclear Medicine tests are interpreted e.g. bone images, thyroid images, thyroid uptake, cardiac studies.
  3. To obtain exposure to the basic physiologic and pharmacologic properties of the radiopharmaceuticals used in the common Nuclear Medicine tests.
  4. To know the appropriate indications for common Nuclear Medicine tests.
  5. To have a basic knowledge of the indications and principles of radioiodine therapy for hyperthyroidism and thyroid cancer.

Resources

After orientation on the first day of the rotation, report to Dr. Viglianti's administrative assistant in room B1G505 UH, phone (734) 936-5388. The current monthly schedule of nuclear medicine conferences will be provided to you.

Clinical Routine

Workdays begin daily at 8:00 a.m. On the first day, after you have reported to Morgan DeLuca, please identify yourself to the supervising nuclear medicine fellow assigned to the imaging “board” who will be responsible for your specific clinical schedule during the week’s rotation. The name of this individual is posted on a white board just outside the general reading room.

Nuclear Medicine Imaging: each day, most of your time will be spent in the reading room area. Together with nuclear medicine fellows, and radiology residents you will preview cases and gain interpretative skills by “read-out” with the Senior Staff member of the day. We hope you will be an active participant in these interpretative/correlative sessions. Questions are always welcomed and the reading sessions are usually participatory and relatively informal. You will also be expected to help interview and examine patients in the Nuclear Medicine Therapy Clinic, and gain basic knowledge in the quality control of studies. You will also observe the planning, execution and interpretation of Positron Emission Tomography (PET) studies. A short time will be allotted for observing the technologists at work as they position patients and operate the various types of imaging equipment. Rotations to the Pediatric Nuclear Medicine satellite, the VA Hospital and the Nuclear Pharmacy may also be arranged on an individual basis, depending upon your interests.

You are assigned to the Therapy Clinic on Thursday mornings, beginning at about 9:00 a.m., immediately following the Case Correlation Conference (see below). This clinic provides rich clinical exposure. You will be expected to help interview and examine patients with thyroid disorders and participate in therapeutic decision-making.

Conferences

Case Correlation Conference: Thursday at 8:00 a.m. in the General Reading Room. Attendance is required. Please check the monthly schedule for other conferences that may be held during your rotation.

Contact

Please don’t hesitate to ask questions! Talk to the supervisory fellow or staff physician of the day if you want more exposure to any particular aspect of nuclear medicine. The rotation has been planned for you to experience most of our activities, but there is quite a bit of flexibility to meet your individual interests and specific goals. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Dr. Ben Viglianti
(734): 936-5385
[email protected]