Overview
Nuclear medicine is the branch of medicine that involves the administration of radiopharmaceuticals in order to diagnose and treat disease. The scanner produces images by detecting a small amount of a radioactive tracer in your body, which is either injected, swallowed or inhaled.
The main difference between nuclear medicine and other imaging modalities is that nuclear imaging show how the tissue or organ being scanned is functioning while the traditional systems such as computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI scan) show only the anatomy or structure.
You need a referral from your doctor to be able to book a appointment for these scans.
Our hybrid multi-slice SPECT-CT is one of the most advanced scanners in New Zealand.
‘SPECT' imaging allows us to view nuclear medicine scans in 3-D and multiple different planes, which increases sensitivity and overall accuracy. The combination with multi-slice CT adds further diagnostic information by also allowing for very accurate anatomical localization.
Mercy Radiology's Theranostics and Research team offer Nuclear Medicine therapy, including 177Lutetium PSMA therapy for prostate cancer and 177Lutetium DOTATATE for neuroendocrine tumours and meningiomas. The Mercy theranostics team have experience in experimental and compassionate use of radiopharmaceuticals for therapy and initiate and participate in local and international clinical trials. We can offer consultations to patients with appropriate referrals from specialists or oncologists to discuss therapy options for oncological and non-oncological nuclear medicine therapy.
Combined Radiology Reporting
We take pride in offering a fully integrated radiology reporting service. This means that all relevant information from other scans e.g. plain radiographs, MRI, ultrasound and CT, is taken into account.