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Imaging Goes Nuclear

262 views · Published 11 March 2016 · 1:34 · Indexed 14 November 2026

Channel: Lee Health · 2016 · Science & Technology

Nuclear imaging is used to assess how your body functions or how the organs inside your body work. This innovative device adds a nuclear camera to a traditional CT scanner to produce special views, a practice known as image fusion or co-registration.

“This is a standard nuclear camera. It has two heads, meaning two different detectors. Inside here is a plate of detectors that senses the radioactive material that’s being emitted by the body. And then behind it is a cat scan. So if you take this part away, most people would recognize this as a typical shape of a cat scanner,” says Dr. John Rodriguez, a radiologist on the medical staff of Lee Memorial Health System.

Unlike a traditional CT scanner which sends radiation though you, the nuclear camera operates off radio-pharmaceuticals which the patient takes prior to testing. It responds to specific areas of their body, and cuts radiation exposure in half.

“The radiation comes out of the patient and hits a crystal that’s inside the camera and that crystal sends an electric signal that then through the magic of technology and innervations gets turned into an image,” says Dr. Rodriguez.

Nuclear imaging delivers an extremely accurate picture of what’s going on inside you. It offers doctors the ability to identify disease in its earliest stage, often before symptoms occur or abnormalities can be detected with other diagnostic tests.

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Lee Memorial Health System in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of medical care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For nearly a century, we’ve been providing our community with everything from primary care treatment to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries.

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Imaging Goes Nuclear

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