Nuclear Medicine

Historically, Fondazione Poliambulanza has been committed to the principle of ‘personalized’ services. It has always expressed its ongoing support for development of personalized approaches and services, whose objective is to tailor care and support to a patient’s particular needs. The differentiation of treatments is a peculiar aspect of its action, given the awareness that patients can respond to treatments in several ways. In this respect, Nuclear Medicine, a branch of medical imaging, is playing an increasingly important role providing customized therapeutic programs and mulecolar imaging approaches. Since nuclear medicine procedures are able to pinpoint molecular activity within the body, they offer the potential to identify disease in its earliest stages as well as a patient’s immediate response to therapeutic interventions, through its two key components, that is radiopharmaceuticals and patient monitoring equipment. 

PET/CT Siemens Biograph 40 mCT

PET / CT tomograph Biograph mCT is a hybrid equipment consisting of a PET detection system consisting of four LSO crystal rings and a 40-layer, diagnostic  CT.    The system is equipped with a TOF (Time of Flight) technology, which is particularly important for increasing PET / CT imaging in oncologic pathologies, with a significant increase in the method accuracy. The excellent matching of technical features is a major benefit, represented by a more targeted clinical approach to patient's real requirements  associated with a significant reduction in the already low radiation dose and an examinatioin time execution of about  13 minutes.
PET / CT  at the Nuclear Medicine of Poliambulanza   is mostly used in the oncology field  with the execution of examinations following the administration of 18F-FDG (general oncology) and 18F-Fluorocoline (prostate cancer).  However, a small but increasingly important use is represented by neurological degenerative pathology (eg Alzheimer's Disease and Parkinson's Disease) and infective/inflammatory disease. 

Gamma Camera Siemens Symbia T

The Symbia T camera range is a hybrid equipment consisting of a traditional two-headed gamma detection system associated with a 2-layer CT. This type of equipment is mainly applied  in nuclear cardiology (with IQ-SPECT technology) that allows myocardial tomoscintigraphies to be performed in few minutes, thus maximizing the sensitivity of gamma ray detection. Other uses at high clinical content are represented by studies with immunologic and recombinant tracers in oncology field (neuroendocrine pathologies), orthopedic (infections, prosthesis) and endocrinological (hyperparathyroidism). A particular use is finally represented by the identification of the so-called sentinel lymph node, that is, the first lymph node that receives the lymph from a district affected by an oncology pathology, which has to be removed to highlight the presence of  metastasis.
 

Gamma Camera Symbia S

The Symbia S camera range is a traditional two-headed detection system for gamma detection. This type of equipment  is mainly applied in skeletal apparatus studies in general, in the detection of sentinel lymph nodes, in kidney disease, both adult and pediatric, and thyroid.   A particular use is represented by the examination with receptor tracer for dopaminergic receptors, which is particularly useful in differential diagnosis of tremor causes (tremor essential, Parkinson's disease).

Radiopharmaceuticals currently administered in Nuclear Medicine are as follows: 

Traditional Nuclear Medicine

^99mTc-HDP (total body and triphasic scintigraphies) 

^99mTc-sestamibi (cardiac scintigraphy and parathyroid)

^99mTc-DMSA (kidney scintigraphy)

^99mTc-DTPA (kidney scintigraphy)

^99mTc-Colloide (sentinel lymph node)

^99mTc-MAA (pulmonary scintigraphy)

^99mTc-anticorpi anti-granulociti  (immunoscintigraphy)

¹¹¹In-Pentetreotide (Octreoscan®)

¹²³I-FPCIT (Datscan®, receptor scintigraphy)

¹²³Ippurano  (kidney scintigraphy)

PET Nuclear Medicine

¹⁸F-Fluorodeoxyglucose

¹⁸F-Fluorochlorine

Continuous innovations and developments in all areas of practices (providing morphologic, functional, molecular and receptorial information), are an ongoing process of Modern diagnostics. Within the coordinated flow of work carried out by the Imaging Department, Nuclera Medicine’s S. C. is in charge of making a comparison between functional and mulecolar data and those coming from different technological sources, allowing adequate storage and reliable traceability of all activities developed within the Department of belonging as well.
 

Besides the diagnostic matter, by the Nuclear Medicine’s S. C. we also perform specific therapies and treatment for hyperthyroidisms and localizations within the skeleton for neoplasias.

Given the complexity of today’s clinical scenario, sometimes some useful Nuclear Medicines procedures can’t be performed. Consequently, it is important that a network of diagnostic structures is easily and fully at patients’ disposal. To this end, Fondazione Poliambulanza’s Nuclear Medicine has built up a close network of professional and scientific relations with regional, national and international centres for diagnosis and treatment.