Nuclear Medicine
The Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital at Texas A&M offers
both diagnostic and therapeutic nuclear medicine procedures. The
procedures are performed and interpreted by experienced
radiologists and technicians.
In diagnostic nuclear medicine, a radiopharmaceutical is
administered to the patient. A radiopharmaceutical is a substance
that contains a radioactive atom and is suitable for use in the
diagnosis or treatment of disease. Radiopharmaceuticals are
formulated to deliver the radioactive atoms to particular parts of
the body. In diagnostic nuclear medicine, radiation emitted by the
radioactive atom is detected by a camera, providing information
related to the function, position, size, borders and shape of the
organ in question. In many cases, nuclear medicine provides
important clinical information that is not provided by other
imaging modalities. In therapeutic nuclear medicine, emitted
radiation can kill cells that have abnormally high metabolic
activity. This is the best available treatment in cats for a common
hormonal disease called hyperthyroidism. Nuclear medicine patients
do not experience pain from their procedures, nor do they
experience short-term (deterministic) side effects of radiation
exposure.
Texas A&M has the capability to perform the following
nuclear medicine diagnostic procedures:
| Diagnostic Test |
Conditions Tested For |
Species |
| Musculoskeletal scintigraphy |
Active bone disorders |
Horses, dogs, cats, others |
| Thyroid scintigraphy |
Disorders of the thyroid gland |
Dogs, cats |
| Transsplenic portal scintigraphy |
Congenital blood vessel abnormalities |
Horses (foals), dogs, cats |
| Glomerular filtration rate |
Disorders of the kidneys |
Dogs, cats |
| Diuretic renal scintigraphy |
Ureteral obstruction |
Dogs, cats |
| Pulmonary perfusion imaging |
Blood clots in the pulmonary arteries |
Dogs, cats |
| Right to left shunt analysis |
Congenital heart abnormalities |
Dogs, cats |
In addition to the aforementioned diagnostic tests, Texas
A&M has the ability to create new procedures or customize
existing procedures to meet the needs the individual patient.
Figure 1: This is an example of a thyroid scan
on a cat with hyperthyroidism. There is increased uptake of
radiopharmaceutical in the left, and to a lesser extent right lobe
of the thyroid gland.
Figure 2: This a transsplenic portal
scintigraphic image (summed static nuclear angiogram). There is an
abnormal blood vessel bypassing the liver (maroon arrow,
portosystemic shunt). The green arrow depicts the heart. The liver
is located between the injection site in the spleen (blue arrow)
and the heart. Cranial is to the right.
Figure 3: These are right lateral (A) and
dorsal (B) musculoskeletal scintigraphic images of the neck of a
horse with an infected intervertebral disk and adjacent vertebrae.
There is increased uptake of radiopharmaceutical centered over the
disk space between the fourth and fifth cervical vertebrae. In A,
cranial is to the right. In B, cranial is to the top.