BRAINCAKEDiagnosis with a Gamma Camera
For a gamma camera scan the patient is given a tracer, usually technetium-99m bound to a compound that the organ being studied takes up. After it has had time to reach the organ, the gamma camera is placed close to the body and records an image of the distribution of the tracer.
Doctors compare the image with the normal pattern:
• a hot spot is an area of unusually high uptake, for example in a bone scan where a tumour or fracture has increased bone activity
• a cold spot is an area of unusually low uptake, for example heart muscle with a poor blood supply, or dead tissue after a heart attack
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Key terms in this lesson
- gamma camera
- A device using a collimator, scintillator and photomultiplier tubes to detect gamma photons from a tracer in a patient and image its distribution.
- resolution
- The ability of an imaging technique to distinguish two closely spaced points or structures as separate.
More in Medical Imaging
- CAT Scanning
- Medical Tracers
- Technetium-99m and Fluorine-18
- The Gamma Camera
- PET Scanning
- Ultrasound
- The Piezoelectric Effect
- Ultrasound Transducers
All 20 lessons in Medical Imaging · All OCR A-level Physics topics