Diagnostic Nuclear Medicine

In the development of many medical technologies the beginning is characterised by an emphasis on the basic scientific principles of the technology and the optimisa­ tion of the functional aspects of the technology. The book provides the comprehensive physics information demanded in the clinical practice of diagnostic nuclear medicine. It addresses the clinical requirements of the scientist, physician and technologist by providing an overview of the discipline in four subject areas: radiation; detection and display; clinical procedures; and quality assurances. Topics discussed include radioactivity, radiopharmaceuticals, radiation protection, radiation detection, non-imaging systems, planar, tomographic and coincidence imaging systems, and display, hardcopy and evaluation of images. Each topic starts from a clinical issue and then explores the underlying physical principles to demonstrate the constraints imposed on, and the potential for optimization of, the diagnostic information.